ENTERPRISE — Wallowa Memorial Hospital is moving to a single-hospitalist system that will provide shared care for all hospital patients by all hospital providers, according to a press release.

“With the single hospitalist system, one physician is on call for all patients admitted for a medical reason and patients in the facility as part of the swing bed rehabilitation program, but excludes obstetric patients,” said Brooke Pace, communications and public relations director for the hospital. “The hospitalist is on-call for seven days in a row, increasing the continuity of care by decreasing the number of handoffs from one shift to another.”

Previously there were two doctors, one from Wallowa Memorial Medical Clinic and one from Winding Waters Medical Clinic, on-call simultaneously, Pace said. One of these physicians was often also responsible for seeing patients in the Emergency Department. Patients could never specifically request a physician while hospitalized, but rather a physician from their chosen clinic under the old model.

Ten physicians from both clinics all are participating in this model, launched in October.

“An essential part of the hospitalist system is multidisciplinary rounds,” Pace said. “These meetings happen daily and include all departments caring for hospitalized patients. Each patient’s care plan is discussed daily at these meetings, and they have nurse-care managers from both clinics present so that each patient’s primary care doctor can be aware of and be involved in the plan, even if they are not the hospitalist that week.”

“There are a few key reasons for this change; continuity of timely care is paramount,” said Dr. Annika Maly, medical director of the hospital’s Medical-Surgical Department. “A single-hospitalist system will allow both Wallowa Memorial Medical Clinic and Winding Waters’ primary care providers to have more availability in their clinic setting, foster a deeper connection with patients in the hospital, provide timely care and have increased availability to nurses and the rest of the team.”

“The task of caring for our patients and providers is equally important,” hospital CEO Larry Davy said of the change. “Even though the new system might take some time to get used to for our patients, we are committed to our mission, vision and values and this new system will help us deliver just that.”

Nurses’ and staff scheduling does not change, Pace said. “There is no additional cost to the patient, and it will have no financial effect on the hospital. The new system is meant to deliver more consistent care to our patients, increase collaboration between clinics and allow a more desirable work-life balance for our physicians.”