Clinical Programs

Faculty members in the UCI School of Medicine Hospitalist Program coordinate the busy inpatient medicine and family medicine services, the general medicine consultation service, the medicine perioperative clinic, the palliative care clinic, the post-hospital follow-up clinic, and co-management/consultative service for the Geropsychiatry unit. 

The Hospitalist Program runs six general medicine inpatient ward teams, the medicine consult service, the palliative care consult services and the geriatric consult service. For more information, call 877.UCI.DOCS (824.3627).

Hospital Medicine Inpatient Care Service

Patients hospitalized for general medical conditions are cared for by several hospitalist internal medicine and family medicine attending faculty and resident teams. 

They diagnose and treat a variety of disease states that span infectious, endocrine, cardiac, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, hematological, renal, rheumatological, oncological and neurological conditions, among others. 

The patient's hospitalized treatment is based on the latest evidence-based treatment guidelines and preventive strategies to ensure the lowest mortality possible. 

Care is coordinated with other specialists and the patient's community-based primary care physician to ensure a smooth transition to and from the hospitalized setting back to the patient's regular physician.

Hospital Medicine Consult Service

General medical consultation for hospitalized patients is available 24 hours a day for all specialty hospital areas caring for adult patients. 

The consultant hospitalist will assist with evaluation and management of general medical conditions such as hypertension, cardiac, pulmonary, geriatric, hematological, infectious, hepatic, renal and diabetes or other endocrine diseases, as well as assessment and optimization of preoperative medical conditions and abnormal vital signs or laboratory values, among others.

All patients are evaluated directly by hospitalist attending faculty who will coordinate care with the referring physicians to expedite the patient's overall recovery from their hospitalized stay.

Hospital Medicine Preoperative Service

The Hospitalist Preoperative Clinic, with location in both Orange and Irvine, offers comprehensive medical evaluations for the surgical patient who also has medical co-morbidities such as heart, lung, endocrine, hematological, hepatic, or renal diseases, among others.

Patients with uncontrolled or unstable medical disease states are evaluated for their risk for surgery and optimized prior to surgery so that their risk is as low as possible. 

This includes coordination of further testing and referrals to specialists such as cardiology or pulmonary if indicated.  Patients are educated about perioperative medication usage and their overall risk for surgery. 

The patient's preoperative care is carefully coordinated with their surgeon and anesthesiologist to ensure the lowest possible risk for surgery. 

Hospital Medicine Palliative Care Service

Palliative care is comprehensive treatment that aims to improve the quality of life of patients and their families when facing a serious or life-threatening condition.  The word “palliate" means “to ease or comfort,” through the prevention and relief of suffering. 

It focuses on early assessment and treatment of pain and/or other emotional, spiritual or physical problems.  Palliative care does not replace a patient's primary treatment, but is instead offered along with curative and all other appropriate forms of treatment.