The Hospitalist Will See You Now

Patients trying to keep straight the proliferating array of medical specialties and subspecialties of doctors now have one more term to remember.

“Hospitalist,” defined in a New England Journal of Medicine article last year, is taking hold and may develop into a full-fledged specialty. It refers to specialists in internal medicine who happen to spend most of their time in the hospital seeing patients, rather than the clinic.

Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, for instance, recently proclaimed that it has one of this “new” breed of doctor on staff. “Hospitalists . . . (free) up a patient’s primary care physician to concentrate on taking care of patients in the office,” says a hospital press release.

Dr. Weston Chandler, an internist and self-described hospitalist whose medical group has contracted with Fountain Valley, says the sign on his door reads: “Internal medicine, board certified, specializing in the care of the hospitalized patient.”

So what do you call him if he winds up at your bedside? Internist? Hospitalist?

“Dr. Chandler’s just fine,” he says.

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Barbara Marsh covers health care for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7762 and at [email protected].