Patients do best with own docs

The family doctor style of medicine could be lifesaving for elderly hospital patients.

That’s according to a study on the expanding use of “hospitalists,” hospital-based internists who oversee care instead of physicians.

In the study of almost 600,000 Medicare hospital admissions, patients with conditions including pneumonia and heart failure were slightly more likely to survive after discharge when treated by their own physicians.

Hospitalist care can reduce costs and shorten stays. But the researchers say their results, published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, show certain patients may benefit from care by doctors who know them well.