Surgicalists, perhaps best described as surgical hospitalists, are salaried hospital staff that provide full-time surgical coverage and ensure that quality surgical care is available as needed. With no private practices competing for their time and attention, surgicalists can focus on ER and acute care demands on a predictable set schedule. For example, a surgicalist might work every day for two weeks with pre-determined hours, then have two weeks off to rest and recharge. Existing private practice surgeons often continue to assist with on-call needs as desired but with a much more manageable schedule.

Surgicalists staffing a hospital are not only general surgeons but are also drawn from the emerging specialty of “acute care.” These surgeons combine surgery for traumatic injuries with general surgical skills, making them an excellent choice for the emergency surgical coverage.


Another advantage of the surgicalist model is that typically surgeons employed in surgicalist programs will integrate seamlessly into the hospital’s workflow – adopting its standardized procedures, communicating consistently and following a patient on their entire journey from admission through discharge for better care coordination. An onsite departmental medical director is often hired to ensure the program effects changes both in the department and hospital-wide. Patient “hand-offs” are smoother, quality measures improve, and with greater efficiencies and shorter length of stays, hospitals may even have more open beds to handle a greater number of surgical cases.

Starting up a surgicalist program
What’s the best place to start in recruiting surgicalists to your hospital? Rather than handling hiring and program management in-house, a surgicalist program management firm may save hospitals time and offer greater value. These firms deliver turn-key professionally developed, proven programs that help to simplify the process while attracting highly skilled, board-certified or -eligible surgeons. After all, that’s all they do, and they have their fingers on the pulse of the current marketplace.

This type of organization will:
-Analyze your hospital’s current emergency surgery program and patient population and compare with similar facilities across the nation to set realistic goals.
-Perform marketplace analysis, taking into account emergency surgery patient volume and current treatment locations to determine how to attract patients.

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