Hospitalist Service

History
Frequently Asked Questions
Meet the Hospitalists

Seamless, State-of-the-Art Care

When you are a patient in Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, your primary care doctor or an emergency room physician may ask that one of our Hospitalists take care of you. Specializing in Internal Medicine, these highly-trained physicians devote their entire practice to caring for hospitalized patients. Since we started our Hospitalist Service in January 2003, we have received many positive comments from patients and their families as well as local primary care physicians. Our experience is similar to what research has shown—that Hospitalists help improve the efficiency of care, often shortening the length of stay so that patients can return more quickly to home, family and daily activities. And it has been found to reduce healthcare costs.

For several years, up to 300 patients have been hospitalized here every day, and many are admitted through our emergency room. While some patients have primary care physicians who care for them while they’re in the hospital, others do not. If you have a primary care physician, he or she can’t always get to the hospital immediately if you’re admitted for an emergency. People who are injured or sick enough to be admitted to the hospital typically need diagnostic tests, lab work, special medications and other services from throughout the hospital. That’s why members of our Hospitalist team are on-site 24hours, every day.