The Impact of a Hospitalist Model in Perioperative Care of Elective Joint Replacement Patients: a 17 years-experience Report
Abstract Background Hospitalists are physicians whose primary professional focus is the general medical care of hospitalized patients. The aim of this report is to describe a 17-year experience of a hospitalist model in peri-operative co-management in more than 25,000 elective joint replacement patients. Methods A retrospective observational study about surgical co-management with hospitalists in a tertiary teaching referral hospital in Milan in relation to hospital lengths of stay (LOS), 30-days readmission rate, incidence of prosthetic joint infections (PJI) and patient related co-morbidities, number of medico-legal disputes and related costs, and medical customer satisfaction. Results Over a 17-year period LOS has been reduced from 10 to 5 days; readmission rates for total hip arthroplasty are 1.7% vs 3.7% (Italy) at 30 days; total infection rates for total knee arthroplasty are recorded at 0.8% vs 1.4% (Italy); obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and/or smoking result as the main co-morbidity in PJI; there have been only 113 medico-legal disputes out of approximately 19,000 surgeries and we report 95% overall medical customer satisfaction. Conclusions This is the first paper outside the US to highlight the impact of the hospitalists on patient satisfaction and the translation of the obtained benefits into savings. The evolution of the hospitalist model in surgical settings shows promising results in terms of patients’ safety and cut of health-related direct and indirect costs.