National Hospitalist Day

Who and What Are Hospitalists?

Hospitalists are the specialists who patients see when they are admitted to a hospital. In general, they usually provide medical care to patients during their stay. After discharge, patients follow up with their primary care physician or specialist.

The term hospitalist first appeared in a medical journal published in 1996. At that time, there were about 800 hospitalists in the nation. Today, there are more than 50,000. As a result of the increase in this profession, hospitalists provide immediate, compassionate care when patients first get to the hospital.

National Hospitalist Day Across the Globe

National Hospitalist Day recognizes hospitalists across the globe and that this profession is the fastest growing specialty in medicine. Furthermore, this specialty’s focus provides exceptional care for hospitalized patients. They do this through education, advocacy, research, quality improvement initiatives, and more. The need for these dedicated clinicians continues to grow.

In addition to celebrating hospitalists’ contributions to patient care, National Hospitalist Day also highlights the diverse career paths of hospital medicine professionals. For example, these include positions from frontline hospitalist physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants to practice administrators, C-suite executives, and academic hospitalists.

Highlights of Society of Hospital Medicine’s campaign include the following:

• Downloadable customizable posters and assets for hospitals and individuals’ offices to celebrate their hospital medicine team, available on SHM’s website, hospitalmedicine.org.
• A series of spotlights of hospitalists at all stages of their careers in The Hospitalist, SHM’s monthly newsmagazine.
• A social media campaign inviting hospitalists and their employers to share their success stories using the hashtag #HowWeHospitalist, including banner graphics, profile photo overlays, and more.
• A social media contest to determine the most creative ways of celebrating use of the hashtag.

“Hospitalists innovate, lead, and push the boundaries of clinical care and deserve to be recognized for their transformative contributions to health care,” said Eric E. Howell, MD, MHM, chief operating officer of SHM. “We hope this is the beginning of a long-standing tradition in honoring hospitalists and the noteworthy work they do.”

For more information, visit www.hospitalmedicine.org/hospitalistday.