North Hawaii Community Hospital outsources staffing

The nonprofit North Hawaii Community Hospital recently signed an outsourcing contract with the for-profit TeamHealth staffing company to provide the Big Island hospital with physicians for its hospital medicine program. This is the second Big Island hospital to sign on with the Tennessee-based company. The for-profit Hilo Medical Center signed a similar contract with the company in 2006.

“The addition of TeamHealth to our care team will enhance the safety and quality of patient care, as well as improve the overall patient experience,” North Hawaii CEO John White said in a prepared statement Monday. “We’re very pleased to have them on board.”

A fast-growing health-care specialty, hospital medicine involves so-called hospitalists who coordinate care for admitted patients who most often do not have an outside primary care physician. The hospitalist acts as a liaison for the patient, family members, physicians and specialists.

Founded in 1979, Knoxville, Tenn.-based, TeamHealth is one of the nation’s largest providers of hospital-based clinical outsourcing services to hospitals and physician groups. It has a network of 5,600 affiliated physicians, providers and nurses and staffs some 550 hospitals in the United States, according to its website.

Established in 1996, the nonprofit North Hawaii Community Hospital is a rural 39-bed acute-care hospital located in Kamuela. Details of the contract were not disclosed.