A hospitalist is a doctor who focuses on work in the hospital, caring for patients and navigating an increasingly complex medical institution. Rather than focusing on an organ or a disease, the work revolves around the physical setting of care. Although hospitalists have been around in one form or another for years, the term “hospitalist” was coined in 1996 by Dr. Robert Wachter, chairman of the department of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, who has taken a lead in developing and promoting this evolving and growing specialty.

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