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New Inpatient Specialists Join The Westerly Hospital Medical Staff
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 chose 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 chose 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.
To contact Hospital
Internists of Westerly,
call 401-348-3581 or by fax at 348-3591.
2/08
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© Copyright 2000 The
Westerly Hospital, All Rights Reserved
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