Monday, December 31, 2007

Christopher Lee's Dec. 21 story ["On-Call Specialists at Emergency Rooms Harder to Find, Keep," front page] brought attention to an important issue affecting hospitals around the nation. Some hospitals are working to alleviate this problem through hospitalist programs, which provide hospital-based physicians in a variety of specialty areas, often 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

At Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, we have hospitalist programs in several areas, including pediatrics, obstetrics-gynecology and surgery. Our surgical hospitalists are on site or available within minutes around the clock to consult and to perform surgery for unscheduled or emergency cases. This allows us to provide rapid, safe, quality care and often eliminates the need for our community surgeons to be on call. Our OB-GYN hospitalist program has had a similar benefit.

As The Post noted, emergency patients are one group that sometimes must wait for the arrival of specialists, including surgeons. Shady Grove's surgical hospitalist program, serving one of Maryland's busiest emergency departments, provides rapid consultations for patients, which helps to alleviate overcrowding and reduce wait times.

GAUROV DAYAL

Chief Medical Officer

Shady Grove Adventist Hospital

Rockville