Specialist hospitalists: could they be the answer to the challenge of call panels?

Having your hospital hire specialist hospitalists can provide much-needed relief for EDs that can't fill their call panels. However, be aware of the limitations of such a strategy: Only specialties that are needed on a regular basis, i.e., general surgeons or orthopedists, will make economic sense. There may be some patient resistance to unfamiliar physicians in sensitive areas such as obstetrics and gynecology. A surgical hospitalist may not have the intimate knowledge of a patient that their regular surgeon would have.