title: [Hospital stay in internal medicine hospitalist function].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  hospitalists are physicians who focus all of their clinical efforts on the management of hospital inpatients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  to evaluate if the presence of hospitalist physicians is associated with a shorter length of stay (LOS).
  
  
  METHODS
  hospitalized patients in the Internal Medicine Department of two second care government hospitals. LOS was defined as ≥ 9 days and hospital admission was classified as medical and nonmedical.
  
  
  RESULTS
  the principal cause of longer nonmedical LOS was delay of medical or surgical procedures. The hospital with hospitalists had significantly lower frequency of LOS (26 % versus 34 %, p = 0.05), higher number of weekends discharges (35 % versus 21 %, p = 0.01) and minor days of hospitalization 6.3 ± 5.2 versus 8.0 ± 6.2, p = 0.002) compared to the hospital without hospitalists.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  the hospitalist model tends toward more cost-effective patient care.
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Investigación Clínica y Epidemiología, Hospital General Regional 20, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. zonanaa@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zonana-Nacach
authors.forename: Rogelio
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Baldenebro-Preciado
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Felix-Muñoz
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gutiérrez
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D020445:Hospitalists; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010819:Physician's Role