About

The Hospital Medicine program began in 1978, to serve three main functions: care for unassigned patients, supervise housestaff on the inpatient service, and provide a user-friendly service for primary care providers who were unable to follow their hospitalized patients. Since its inception, the division has grown to 21 physicians and four medical fellows. Our hospitalists provide inpatient care at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego (RCHSD), and at the pediatric unit at Sharp Grossmont Hospital, located in the eastern part of San Diego County.

Our hospitalists serve as a clinical resource for community physicians and emergency departments to determine the need for acute care admission, discuss alternatives to admission, and provide a second opinion for patients with diagnostic challenges. All our hospitalists are board-certified pediatricians with acquired expertise in different fields outside of traditional hospital medicine. Most have also had additional post-residency training through chief residency or fellowships including hospice and palliative care medicine, critical care and pediatric hospital medicine.

Our hospitalists work closely with hospital staff to optimize patient flow and hospital capacity and to address patient care issues across the organization. Additionally, our hospitalists coordinate transport of acutely ill pediatric patients at risk for clinical deterioration for San Diego and neighboring counties.

In addition to clinical services, hospitalists in the division hold many administrative positions in Quality Management, Informatics, Homecare, Helen Bernardy Center for Medically Fragile Children, Graduate Medical Education, Simulation/Learning Center, Inpatient Services, and others. We have multiple funded and unfunded projects in QI, research, and education, with an average of 40 different projects ongoing at any given time.

We are committed to the community and to advocacy for child health, including leading in Safe Sleep for infants, smoke exposure cessation, and other initiatives that include activity at the county and state levels.