What if your doctor is not affiliated with a hospital?

If you go to a hospital where your primary doctor does not practice, what happens? Do they assign you a temporary doctor?|||Yes. You will be assigned a 'hospitalist' which is generally a well versed M.D. that takes responsibility for many patients at once on a general level. Their goal is to coordinate all specialists and keep things flowing smoothly between all admitted patients of theirs. They will visit the patient most days,.. and usually have a P.A., and a great deal of nurses they write primary orders for.





Your doctor can still come to you in the hospital if he so wishes -- even though it is out of his jurisdiction, he can still confer with your doctor their if there are any additional treatment concerns. An M.D. is and M.D. -- Think of it like this,.. two police officers have a similar job,.. however they generally won't operate in each others precincts.. though if one does come into another precinct they will be treated as what they are qualified to do.





Alot of doctors have multiple hospitals they operate out of .. but you raise a valid question/concern. Your doctor won't be able to 'admit' or 'discharge' or do anything that operates within that hospitals procedures if he isn't affiliated.. though, again, if it is still somewhat local, your doctor is welcome and encouraged to come assist with your care.





Providing your past medical history and so forth can be invaluable.|||Yes. The traditional American system is that you'll be assigned a physician of the appropriate specialty. That's part of being "on call" for the physicians. More and more hospitals are hiring hospitalists for the purpose, as the US moves towards something more like the British system, in which the tradition is that GP's don't have a hospital practice, leaving it all to the consultants.