St. John's Hospital and SIU School of Medicine Announce Hospitalist Program
In-house Physicians Available to Oversee Patient Care

St. John's Hospital and the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine have announced a new program in Springfield offering patients hospitalized at St. John's access to in-house physicians 24 hours a day.

Under the hospitalist program, two SIU School of Medicine physicians, Dr. Christine Y. Todd and Dr. Robert L. Robinson are making daily rounds and helping coordinate inpatient treatment and procedures on behalf of a patient's primary care physician. Todd and Robinson are serving all patients who have SIU internists as their primary care physicians and have begun accepting referrals from private physicians for care of adult patients.

"Hospitalist programs are a growing trend around the country because they help ensure timely coordination of inpatient care and offer more one-on-one physician contact for patients and their families," said Dr. Ronald Deering, St. John's medical director. "This program is especially beneficial for out-of-town patients whose primary care physician may not have time to travel to St. John's on a daily basis to see patients."

"We are excited to partner with St. John's to develop this hospitalist service, which will allow both the hospital and the medical school to help more patients from a larger part of our region than ever before," said Dr. David Steward, professor and chair of internal medicine at SIU. "It is especially important that our students and residents become familiar with a high quality hospitalist program, so that they can make good decisions about how to incorporate this approach into their practices when they complete training."

Patients who receive care from the two SIU faculty physicians during their hospitalization can still be seen by their primary care physician, who will be informed daily on their progress. After hospitalization, the primary care physician will be informed of the discharge plans and treatments and will resume providing care for the patient.

"When hospitalists focus care on inpatients, it allows community physicians to spend more time on their outpatient practices because they're more available and able to concentrate on the problems at hand," explains Todd. "Additionally, since we as hospitalists spend our time working with inpatients, we can work to improve the flow of care that happens here in ways that ultimately benefit every patient and physician associated with this hospital."

According to the Society of Hospital Medicine, there are more than 1,200 hospitalist programs in the United States, with more than 8,000 hospitalists treating patients.

Todd graduated from SIU School of Medicine and completed her residency training in internal medicine at the University Hospitals of Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland VA Medical Center, serving as chief resident at both institutions. From 1997 to 2000, Todd was in private practice in Mason City. As a volunteer faculty member with SIU during that time, she received the Dr. Richard Allyn Memorial Award for Best Community Faculty of the Year from the Department of Internal Medicine. She has been on the SIU faculty as an assistant professor of internal medicine since 2000.

Robinson joined the faculty at SIU School of Medicine in June 2003 as an instructor of internal medicine after completing his internal medicine residency training with the medical school. He received his medical degree from SIU in 2000. Prior to medical school, Robinson attended Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, earning a bachelor's in biology (1993) and a master's in biological sciences (1995).

Physicians interested in referring patients to St. John's/SIU hospitalists can call the St. John's switchboard at (217) 544-6464.

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