TY  - JOUR
AU  - Meltzer,David O.
AU  - Chung,Jeanette W.
TI  - Coordination, Switching Costs and the Division of Labor in General Medicine: An Economic Explanation for the Emergence of Hospitalists in the United States
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 16040
PY  - 2010
Y2  - May 2010
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16040
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16040.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David Meltzer
Section of Hospital Medicine
University of Chicago
5841 S. Maryland, MC 5000
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773/702-0836
Fax: 773/735-7398
E-Mail: dmeltzer@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu

Jeanette Chung
Section of Hospital Medicine
University of Chicago
5841 S. Maryland MC 2007
Chicago, IL 60637
E-Mail: no email available
AB  - 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. Our findings suggest opportunities to improve care.
ER  -