Table 1.

Selection of Cohorts of Admissions Cared for by Hospitalists. The Final Cohorts Differed Slightly Depending on the Analysis; For Example, We Excluded Deaths in Hospital when Measuring Post-Hospitalization Outcomes

	Admission Number (% of the last step)
Admissions in 2008 and 2009 of TX beneficiaries from TX hospitals	1,928,143
↓
Short stay admissions only (no rehabilitation hospitals)	1,624,548 (84.3)
↓
Admissions with medical DRG only	1,142,137 (70.3)
↓
Exclude admissions with MDC 14 or 24	1,139,954 (99.8)
↓
Exclude admissions with ICU stay	764,777 (67.1)
Admissions cared by generalists (any inpatient E&M from a generalist physician)	514,215 (67.2)
↓
Admissions where hospitalists are responsible for 100 % of E&M charges from generalist physicians	210,542 (40.9)
↓
Admissions with a major hospitalist (responsible for ≥ 50 % of all E&M billings from hospitalists)	190,077 (90.3)
↓
For patients with multiple admissions in one year, randomly select one admission	153,932 (81.0)
↓
Admissions from patients with complete Parts A & B and no HMO in the year before admission	138,761 (90.1)
↓
Further selection	Length of Stay	Discharge Home/SNF*	30-day Readmission†	30-day ER visit†
		107,901 (77.8)	116,228 (83.8)	115,928 (83.5)
↓
Admissions with a major hospitalist who cared more than 30 admissions	131,710 (94.9)	99,522 (92.2)	108,547 (93.4)	108,226 (93.4)
	↓
Exclude outliers with > 3 standard deviations	129,491 (98.3)

TX Texas; DRG diagnosis related group; MDG Major Diagnostic Category; ICU intensive care unit; E&M evaluation and management; HMO health maintenance organization; SNF skilled nursing facility; ER emergency room

^*Those discharged dead, or to another acute care hospital or admitted from a nursing facility were excluded

^†Those discharged dead, or to another acute care hospital or dead without an event (readmission or ER visit) within 30 days were excluded