Coordination, Switching Costs and the Division of Labor in General Medicine

An Economic Explanation for the Emergence of Hospitalists in the United States

Submitted by Hope Rachel Hetico RN, MHA

[Managing Editor]

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From a white paper by David O. Meltzer, Jeanette W. Chung

NBER Working Paper No. 16040
Issued in May 2010

General medical care in the United States has historically been provided by physicians who care for their patients in both ambulatory and hospital settings.  Care is now increasingly divided between physicians specializing in hospital care (hospitalists) and ambulatory-based care primary care physicians.  We develop and find strong empirical support for a theoretical model of the division of labor in general medicine that views the use of hospitalists as balancing the costs of coordinating care across physicians in the hospitalist model against physicians costs switching between ambulatory and hospital settings in the traditional model.

Assessment

These findings suggest opportunities to improve care.

Link: http://papers.nber.org/papers/w16040

Conclusion

All ME-P readers are invited to opine.

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