In a 1996 article in The New England Journal of Medicine, Robert M. Wachter, MD, and Lee Goldman, MD, predicted that the ascendance of managed care and its demands for efficiency would spur a “new breed” of physicians called “hospitalists,” who would transform the American health care landscape.
They were right. The hospitalist model quickly delivered high-value care by reducing costs and lengths of stay, and maintaining or improving care quality and patient satisfaction.