PI: David Meltzer, MD, PhD
Co-PI: Micah Prochaska, MD, MS

The Hospitalist Project is a research infrastructure measuring and analyzing the effects of hospitalists on patient outcomes, costs, and medical education.

Since 1997, a quality of care study has been conducted, “A Multi-Center Trial of Academic Hospitalists” which is now housed in the Section of Hospital Medicine. Over the years, this protocol has expanded from a research study to a research infrastructure and has become known as “The Hospitalist Project” (HP).   The overall aim to the current protocol is to develop and describe a research infrastructure while preserving all relevant and active elements of the original study.

Care of hospitalized patients by “hospitalists”—often defined as physicians who dedicate at least 25% of their practice to inpatient care—is a recent, growing and controversial trend in health care delivery in the United States. Despite the growth of interest in hospitalists, there have been few scientific evaluation of the concept. In 1997, “A Multi-Center Trial of Academic Hospitalists” was approved with a comprehensive aim to measure and analyze the effects of hospitalists on patient outcomes, costs, and medical education on the general medicine services.  The University of Chicago was the lead site and included 5 additional performance sites including: Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF), the University of Iowa (UI), the University of New Mexico (UNM), and the University of Wisconsin (UW).  These sites collected data between July 2001 and June 2003.  Mercy Hospital, located on the southside of Chicago, collected data from January 2010 to October 2014.

The current primary aim of HP is to measure the quality of care and health outcomes on the general medicine services in the hospital. By looking at the continuation of care before, during, and after hospitalization, the process of the care and treatments given, and the level of wellness of the patient before and after discharge, we can more appropriately gauge whether or not the care we provide is not only sufficient, but also superior and more beneficial to the patient.  As a part of the study, we also look at factors affecting the medical education and networking of the hospital staff, in order to further understand how these aspects will ultimately influence the care given to patients.

Interested? Come join us!

We encourage volunteer and work-study students to apply for clinical research positions within our various projects.  If you are interested in a unique position that includes patient interaction experience, please apply here.

If you have any questions about the Hospitalist Project in general, please contact: hospitalistresearch@bsd.uchicago.edu