The Westerly Hospital has been joined in caring for our medical inpatients by a team of physician specialists known as "hospitalists," led by Christopher R. Jalbert, M.D. This is an important enhancement to inpatient care at the Hospital.
Hospitalists are fully trained physicians who have chosen to specialize in caring for patients in the hospital. They do not see patients outside the hospital setting, concentrating their time and attention instead on the care of the hospitalized patient. They are usually internists. Dr. Jalbert and his associates, Kenneth W. Donovan, M.D., Elizabeth Ann Tillman, M.D., and J. Kevin Shushtari, M.D. are all board certified in internal medicine. They will be joined by additional qualified members of their group, Hospital Internists of Westerly, as the service grows.
Patients without a primary care physician or whose primary care physician is one of the several participating in this service will generally be referred to the hospitalists upon admission to the Hospital as medical inpatients. These patients will remain under the care of the hospitalists until they are discharged. Once a patient is discharged from the Hospital the patient's primary care physician resumes the care of the patient, with the benefit of all the needed information and insight provided by the hospitalist. There is thorough communication between the hospitalist and a patient's primary care physician.
In introducing this program here, The Westerly Hospital is following a proven national trend, similar to what other area hospitals have done and have found to be beneficial. This enhancement is important to our local community in several ways, including the fact that there is presently a shortage of primary care physicians in our area. Primary care doctors who choose to participate in the hospitalist program will be able to concentrate more time and attention on patients in their offices. The addition of this program will assist the Hospital in attracting new primary care physicians to our area. "Many of the Hospital's present medical staff members have been eager to see the availability of hospitalists at The Westerly Hospital, and we welcome Dr. Jalbert and his associates," said Steven R. Yolen, M.D., president of The Westerly Hospital medical staff.
The Hospital's admitting physicians are not obligated to utilize the hospitalist program. Some will choose to continue seeing their own hospitalized patients. This is something patients may want to discuss with his or her own physician who can best explain whether he or she intends to utilize this service. Hospitalists will care only for medical inpatients. Surgical inpatients (general surgery, orthopedics, urology, etc.), mothers and their babies, and children under 15 will continue to be seen in the Hospital by their surgeon, obstetrician, pediatrician, etc. Many patients admitted to the Hospital from the emergency department will now have the benefit of the attention of the hospitalist when appropriate.
Dr. Jalbert is a Westerly resident and has served as a hospitalist at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London since 2005. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry in 1999 and completed his Combined Residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA, in 2003.
"We believe that the experience this new group of inpatient specialists is bringing will quickly prove to be a welcome feature of the care The Westerly Hospital provides. And it is one important step in strengthening our ability to recruit physicians to meet the needs of the community and to be of the highest possible value to our patients," said Charles S. Kinney, Westerly Hospital President/CEO.