Characteristics of hospitalists and hospitalist programs in the united states and canada

Objective: To compare hospitalist physician and program characteristics in the United States and Canada. Design: Cross-sectional study using survey instruments. Measurements: Hospitalist characteristics included age, gender, residency training, international medical graduate status, part-time status, salary, and paid time off. Hospitalist program characteristics included age of program, hospital size, clinical and nonclinical services rendered, teaching activities, on-site night coverage of patients, program growth, and utilization of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and case managers. Results: American hospitalists were predominantly internal medicine-trained (82%), whereas Canadian hospitalists were trained in family medicine (90%;P < 0.001). American hospitalist groups were more involved with consultative work (98% vs. 59%; p < 0.001), intensive care unit patient care (75% vs. 4%; p < 0.001), rapid response team service (35% vs. 16%; p = 0.01), and surgical inpatient comanage- ment (84% vs. 57%; p < 0.001). However, American programs provided less pediatric care (12% vs. 31%; p < 0.001) and psychiatric inpatient coman- agement (2% vs. 51%; p < 0.001) than programs in Canada. On-site evening coverage of inpatients was more prevalent among American versus Canadian hospitalist groups (51% vs. 30%; p = 0.01). Conclusion: American and Canadian hospitalist physician and program characteristics appear to be different. These differences may allow for future studies to identify strategies and best practices for inpatient care.