Michigan health system expands hospitalist program
As the demand for hospitalist physicians increases nationwide, Allegiance Health has decided to expand its own program by entering into an agreement with a hospitalist management company.
Hospitalists are one of the fastest growing subspecialties in contemporary medicine. These physicians are usually internal medicine specialists who care exclusively for hospital-based patients.
Allegiance Health, a 40-facility health system in Jackson, Mich., launched its hospitalist program in 2006 with just four practitioners, but the program has grown into an around-the-clock service, with 14 physicians and two nurse practitioners.
“After experiencing explosive growth within our internally managed hospitalist program, we recognized a need for greater infrastructure and resources for our hospitalists,” said Jacalyn Liebowitz, RN, Allegiance’s vice president of patient care continuum.
Allegiance signed the affiliation agreement with national hospitalist firm Cogent Healthcare, based in Brentwood, Tenn.
According to Allegiance Health President and CEO Georgia Fojtasek, the agreement was needed in order to help improve communication with primary care physicians, enhance continuity of care and boost quality outcomes.
"We selected Cogent among several possibilities primarily because of its physician leadership, focus on quality improvement and educational resources for our physicians, such as Cogent Academy," Fojtasek said.
Len Scarpinato, MD, Cogent's north-central regional medical rirector, said the company uses a “system of care" model that emphasizes “strong physician leadership with a constant measurement of performance indicators."
Allegiance Health serves a six-county area in south central Michigan. Its facilities have a total of 411 beds, and Allegiance has made consistent appearances on the Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals list.
