Treatment Teams in Academic Hospitals

Posted by Anthony Lee Jan 31, 2009

When people are hospitalized, they usually expect to receive care from one doctor and one doctor only. Some hospitals are like that. However, there is one type of hospital that does it differently: the academic or teaching hospital.

In such a place, your care comes from a team of individuals. The leader of the team is the attending physician, whom you could consider the main doctor. In addition, there is at least one doctor in training, a first-year intern or a resident in the second year or beyond, whom you typically see more often. Sometimes, there can even be a third- or fourth-year medical student who, like the doctors in training, are involved in your care for learning purposes.

For some patients, sorting out the members of this treatment team is tricky. Interestingly enough, a study recently published in the Archives of Internal Medicine reports that, among patients at the University of Chicago Medical Center, 75% could not correctly name any of the physicians and trainees on his or her treatment team. Of the remaining 25% who attempted to identify his or her providers, only 40% were correct. This can be problematic when such confusion leads to a lack of trust and, ultimately, suboptimal healthcare delivery.

Hence, it might be helpful for treatment teams in academic hospitals to introduce themselves clearly and have pamphlets for patients that identify the team members. The less unsettling the hospital experience, the better.

Source: Arora, Vineet, et al. "Ability of Hospitalized Patients to Identify Their In-Hospital Physicians." Archives of Internal Medicine. 2009 Jan 26;169(2):199-201.