The Right Care When You Need it Most

Holmes Regional Medical Center, one of four local hospitals operated by Brevard-based healthcare provider Health First, is now offering women a unique, additional layer of medical safety not found in hospitals operated by any other local health systems.     

    Starting in October, Holmes Regional Medical Center will be the only hospital in the area to have full-time hospital-based Obstetrician/Gynecologists (OB/GYNs) who are available 24/7 to handle any OB/GYN emergency, routine procedure, or unexpected or early arrivals.  Holmes’ new OB/GYN Hospitalist Program is the first of its kind on Florida’s Space Coast to ensure that anytime a woman walks in the hospital’s doors with health issues related to Obstetrics or Gynecology, there will be a specialist onsite to help.

     "As all OB/GYNs know, obstetrical patients sometimes require constant re-evaluations of care decisions. If the patient's regular OB/GYN is not available, the hospitalist is ready and available on the scene to respond with needed interventions," said Patricia Donahue RNC, Director of Clinical Nursing at Holmes Regional Medical Center. "They are also there to answer any questions the patient or family member may have regarding care."

     OB/GYN Hospitalists are immediately available onsite, 24 hours a day/7 days a week.  In the event that your own physician is not available, an OB/GYN Hospitalist can examine, evaluate the progress of labor, react to Lab abnormalities or anesthesia needs, evaluate worrisome fetal or maternal heart rates, stay on top of any problems that may be evolving, and provide for a safe delivery.  All this can be accomplished during the same period of time that you might be waiting for an on-call OB/GYN to arrive if you were at another hospital.

     “This program eliminates the delay of possibly having to wait for a face-to-face consultation,” said Dr.  Benezra, Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics at Holmes Regional Medical Center. "When a woman arrives at Holmes, the first immediate consultation can be with an experienced, full-time, Board certified OB/GYN Hospitalist who is already on site, rather than relying on a phone consultation with an on-call OB/GYN  who is not at the hospital 24/7."

     While there are no readily available statistics on the number of OB/GYN-specific Hospitalists nationwide, studies have shown that general use of Hospitalists is growing.  A Hospitalist is a doctor, usually employed by the facility or hospital, whose primary responsibility is the care of patients in the hospital.  Unlike a more traditional practice in which a physician must balance between serving patients in the hospital and seeing patients in the office, a Hospitalist is entirely devoted to the care of hospitalized patients.

     According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the percentage of Hospitalists among general Internists increased from 5.9 percent in 1995 to 19 percent in 2006, with rapid growth starting in 1997.  The percentage of facilities with at least three Hospitalists increased four times during the same period of time. 

     Holmes Regional Medical Center and Health First overall have been providing patients with the advantages of Hospitalist programs for several years as part of the Health First Physicians medical group serving at Holmes as well as our other three Health First hospitals — Cape Canaveral Hospital, Palm Bay Hospital, and the new Viera Hospital. 

     Within the past few months, Holmes announced the start of a similar Hospitalist program for pediatric patients. That particular program is a partnership with Nemours, one of the nation’s premier pediatric healthcare systems. The newly created Pediatric Hospitalist Program at Holmes provides 24-hour inpatient Hospitalist Pediatricians who help other Pediatricians on the hospital’s Medical Staff with necessary inpatient rounds that would otherwise limit their ability to see patients in their offices. The OB/GYN Hospitalist Program at Holmes follows a similar model. 

     The OB/GYN Hospitalists at Holmes are part of OB Hospitalist Group (OBHG), the single largest dedicated OB/GYN Hospitalist provider of seasoned, hospital-based OB/GYNs who are highly skilled in a variety of different delivery techniques, which may also help to spare a patient an unnecessary Cesarean-section (C-section).

     The OB/GYN Hospitalists at Holmes are experts at difficult deliveries and obstetrical techniques, including turning a baby in the womb to avoid a breech delivery, twin deliveries, pre-term deliveries, face presentations, and breech deliveries.

     OB/GYN Hospitalists are required to maintain high levels of clinical performance and professional standards. In addition to Board certification for OB/GYNs, the OB/GYN Hospitalists are required to have additional specialized training. 

     Another advantage for patients is communication with other professionals within Holmes.  Like your personal physician, OB/GYN Hospitalists are familiar with all the key staff members in the hospital, including medical and surgical consultants, discharge planners, social workers, clergy, and others. 

     OB/GYN Hospitalists can expedite care and easily facilitate connections with providers of home health care, skilled nursing, specialized rehabilitation, and much more.