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In a large pediatric teaching hospital, a system of inpatient care provided by hospitalists can reduce length of stay. This model has the potential to control hospital charges in a period of increasing health care costs.

IN HIS RESEARCH on the physician-patient relationship, Cousins1 found that 85% of people had changed physicians or were thinking of changing in the past 5 years. Many of those who changed did so because of their physician's poor communication skills. One of the qualities of effective communication is the use of empathy. Because some physicians have not learned to use empathy in their training as medical students and residents, they may be ineffective in the care of patients.2

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