We like the idea of independence: from insurance companies, from drug salesmen, and from bureaucrats. That raises the question of how we work with hospitals, most of which these days belong to large and very bureaucratic chains.

Because we don’t limit ourselves to just one hospital, we rely on hospitalists, doctors whose function is to monitor hospitalized patients on behalf of primary care physicians like us. This is an effective and time-proven method of keeping everybody in the loop. All the information we need gets here, and all the information the hospital needs gets there. We continue to monitor your care; at no point do you stop being “our” patient.

Most importantly, by remaining independent, we are able to get our patients into the best hospital, where we know the best specialists work, for any particular condition. We meet with specialists regularly, creating our own referral network, so that when an urgent situation arises, we know where to send you and who’s going to work with you there.

Like everything we do at The Sheldon Sowell Center for Health, our approach to picking a hospital revolves around… you guessed it… you.