Do hospitalists improve the quality of care?

In recent years, more hospitals have hired full-time docs known as hospitalists to provide general care to inpatients. A study was conducted focusing on the treatment of heart attack, pneumonia, and heart failure at 3,619 hospitals, about 40% of which had hospitalists. After adjusting for differences between the groups, researchers found that hospitals with hospitalists adhered more closely to standard quality measures than hospitals without hospitalists.