Cost-Effectiveness of a Hospitalist Service in a Public Teaching Hospital

Abstract

By reducing payment denials and increasing the inpatient census, hospitalists were able to more than offset their compensation with a substantial increase in revenue under per diem reimbursement, which adds a new dimension to prior reports of cost-effectiveness of hospitalist services in diagnosis-based, capitated, or fee-for-service reimbursement systems. Hospitalists are a cost-effective solution to the problem of increasing inpatient workloads at public teaching hospitals.