Defining the Hospitalist Workforce in the Care of Newborns Free

Objective: Pediatric Hospital Medicine is a rapidly growing new subspecialty. While many practice newborn care, this subset of hospitalists has not been described. The objective of this study was to define the hospitalist workforce in the care of newborns during the birth hospitalization, including describing job characteristics of newborn hospitalists and nursery sites for clinical practice.

Methods: An 81 question web-based survey was distributed to a convenience sample of 418 hospitalists taking care of newborns during the birth hospitalization in September and October 2024. We performed descriptive statistics and tests of association.

Results: We had 336 respondents, for a response rate of 80%. Amongst 336 respondents, 451 nursery sites were described. Hospitalists at nearly all sites independently managed level I infants (n=436, 97%), with 38% (n=170) managing level II infants. Hospitalists at 45% (n=203) of sites attended deliveries, and more likely to attend at community sites (p less than 0.001), in rural settings (p less than 0.001), and sites with lower annual delivery volumes (p less than 0.001). Hospitalists at most sites spent the majority of their daily clinical time on the care of newborns (n=378, 84%) with 47% (n=210) spending greater than 90% of daily clinical time on newborn care.

Conclusions: Amongst surveyed hospitalists who provide care for newborns during the birth hospitalization, newborn care presented a majority of their clinical workload. Nearly all independently managed level I infants, with a subset managing level II infants. This survey is the first characterization of hospitalists and their care of newborns and serves as a primer for further understanding of this workforce.