Hospitals employ or contract with specialty physicians to cover staffing of key hospital departments. Common specialties for these roles include anesthesia, emergency medicine, hospitalist medicine and radiology. These roles are gaining prominence as hospital staff becomes more important for care coordination. As a result, other sub-specialties have come into play, such as laborists and surgicalists. Meanwhile, the reimbursement for these professional services is under pressure. As such, hospitals are increasingly asking questions about the cost, leadership, service and staffing options to cover these critical departments.
