January 20, 2005
Genesis Health System To Introduce Hospitalist Services At GMC, Davenport
Davenport, IA – Genesis Health System has signed an agreement with California-based Cogent Healthcare Inc. to provide hospitalist services at Genesis Medical Center, Davenport.
Hospitalists are physicians whose sole practice is the care of hospitalized patients. Hospitalists are available in the hospital to provide continuous, coordinated care for patients of primary care physicians with busy practices. The Genesis Medical Center hospitalists also will be available to provide and coordinate care for patients who do not have a primary care physician.
When the hospitalist program is available at Genesis Medical Center, Davenport, later this year, “the doctor will always be in.’’ A hospitalist will be available to Genesis Medical Center, Davenport patients 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Physicians will be able to utilize the Genesis hospitalist program for management of their inpatients needing medical services, and for consultation involving general medical care.
“This program doesn’t limit the scope of practice of any of the physicians at Genesis Medical Center, Davenport,’’ said Dr. Frank Claudy, M.D. and Vice President of Medical Staff Affairs at Genesis Medical Center, Davenport. “Instead, it creates options for physicians to maximize their efficiency.
“This program, like everything else we do, serves our mission to provide quality, compassionate care to all those in need.
Cogent Healthcare, Inc., of Irvine, Calif., is one of the nation’s leading providers of hospitalist inpatient care management programs. Cogent currently operates hospitalist management programs in 13 states.
Dr. Ron Greeno, M.D. and Chief Medical Officer of Cogent Healthcare, said, “All of us at Cogent are very excited about partnering with Genesis Medical Center to create a hospitalist program that a quality system like Genesis deserves.
“Having trained at the University of Iowa, I have insight into the high standards that Genesis sets for its organization. These high standards make Genesis an outstanding partner for a Cogent program that prides itself on quality and service delivery. Together, we will offer a creative solution to the issues that face all community-based hospitals like Genesis, such as treating growing numbers of uninsured patients, reducing medical errors, and eliminating slowdowns in the emergency department.’’
Hospitalist physicians are the fastest growing medical group in the United States. There are an estimated 8,000 hospitalists practicing today with the hospitalist physician workforce expected to expand to more than 20,000 by 2010. Genesis Medical Center will be added to a list of many of the nation’s top hospitals that provide hospitalist services. The Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and university hospitals all over the country have hospitalist programs.
The majority of adult medicine hospitalists – about 83 percent, according to the Society of Hospital Medicine – are trained in general internal medicine. Another 5 percent are trained in an internal medicine subspecialty, 3 percent are trained in family practice.
Hospitalists are able to spend more time with patients and patient families because all of their working hours are spent in the hospital. A Genesis Medical Center inpatient being treated by a hospitalist may see the doctor several times each day during the hospital stay.
If a patient has a primary physician, the hospitalist is in close contact with that physician while the patient is hospitalized. Once the patient is released from the hospital, follow-up care is provided by the primary physician.
Because they spend all of their working hours in the hospital, hospitalists become very experienced in the treatment of acute inpatient disorders. Utilizing a hospitalist allows the primary care physician to focus attention on outpatient care, while receiving a continuous stream of information about the patients’ inpatient course of treatment.
Cogent has begun the recruitment of hospitalists for Genesis Medical Center. Dr. Claudy said he expects at least three hospitalist physicians to join Genesis Medical Center, Davenport to cover the West Central Park and East Rusholme Street hospital campuses.
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About Cogent Healthcare, Inc.
Cogent Healthcare, Inc. is a leading provider of services that improve the well being of hospitalized patients. Its vision is to improve care and efficiency by reducing variations in care, establishing best practices, identifying and removing barriers to efficient care, and measuring outcomes. To this end, the company provides comprehensive programs in clinical care staffing, communication, and data management that support the hospitalist physician in the delivery of inpatient care. Cogent physicians continue to lead the profession by setting best practices for hospital medicine, providing a national mentoring program, and offering the first Internet-based continuing medical educational program for hospitalist physicians, which can be accessed on the company’s Web site, http://www.cogenthealthcare.com/. For more information about Cogent Healthcare, contact Andy Puterbaugh at 949-399-6089.
About Genesis Health System
Genesis Health System and its affiliates offer a full continuum of care, including preventive, primary, acute and tertiary hospital care; home health; hospice; rehabilitation; and long-term care. Its affiliates include Genesis Medical Center, Davenport, DeWitt and the Illini Campus in Silvis, Illinois; the Genesis Medical Education Foundation, Visiting Nurse Association and GenVentures Inc. Serving a 10-county area of eastern Iowa and western Illinois, the Health System also operates Genesis Health Group and Genesis Behavioral Resources. For more information, visit our Web site at www.genesishealth.com.
