This is an excerpt from a member-only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe.

Two recent studies seem to confirm that hospitalists reduce patient LOS-a finding that many capitated groups using these clinicians have already discovered. In a paper published in Archives of Internal Medicine,1 researchers at New York City's Montefiore Medical Center examined data collected between July 1, 2002, and June 30, 2004, and compared the records of 2,913 patients treated by hospitalists at Montefiore's Weiler Hospital, a 381-bed teaching facility, to those of 6,124 patients treated by nonhospitalist teams. Patients were similar in age, sex, race, prior admission, and mix of acute diagnoses.