Welcome to the UCSF Surgical Hospitalist program at the UCSF Medical Center!
Introduced in July of 2005, the mission of the UCSF Surgery Hospitalist program is to provide high quality and timely care to all patients being evaluated with emergency surgical conditions at UCSF Medical Center. UCSF was the first academic teaching hospital in the nation to employ this innovative new model of surgical hospitalists: doctors who are dedicated to evaluating patients in the emergency department, as well as those on inpatient wards in need of a surgical consultation.
In 2006, the Institute of Medicine had pronounced in its report "Hospital based emergency care- at the breaking point" that "Emergency medical care in the US is on the verge of collapse," citing "dangerous emergency room overcrowding and an inability to treat patients in a timely and efficient manner as the main reasons." The intent of the UCSF Surgical Hospitalist program is to propose solutions to this crisis in access to emergency surgical care, and to enhance patient satisfaction and the delivery of optimal patient centered care for the broad base of surgical emergencies.
The hallmark of our program is the dedicated availability and expertise of faculty who are continuously available to promote continuity of care, improve communication between physicians, and coordinate in-patient care at an academic medical center. In the surgical hospitalist model, full-time board-certified general surgeons provide coverage on a rotating weekly basis, dedicating all of their time to being available for Emergency Department and inpatient consults. Now in its third year, the program has reduced average response times to consultation requests to under 20 minutes, and waiting times for surgical patients to undergo operation have been dramatically reduced.
Our intent is to transform the way that emergency surgical care is provided, grounded in the commitment to high quality patient care, education, and research to improve the quality and efficiency of hospital-based surgical care in teaching hospitals.
John Maa, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Director, Surgical Hospitalist Program