Hospitalist Services

Dr. Suj Sundaraj spends his days seeing only patients in the hospital. He travels the floors of Silver Cross Hospital with a personal digital assistant (PDA) in hand and a smile on his face performing a variety of tasks such as admitting and discharging patients, ordering tests and medicines, and monitoring results. Dr. “Suj” is a hospitalist, a relatively new type of medical specialist whose work is dedicated solely to caring for patients in the hospital. There are over 10,000 hospitalists throughout the country and now Silver Cross has two—Suj Sundaraj, M.D., founder and current president of the Chicago Chapter of the Society for Hospital Medicine, and Melind Shirsat, M.D.

For more than a decade, through a successful partnership with Children's Memorial in Chicago, Silver Cross has provided pediatric and neonatology services in-house 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Silver Cross now offers this same type of inpatient care to adult patients through Dr. Suj and Signature Healthcare Solutions.

The hospitalist program is a win-win situation for everyone. Hospitalists have shown to reduce the length of a patient's stay, decrease hospital costs, and improve patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes-specifically reducing both readmission and mortality.

Hospitalists, like Dr. Suj, have agreements with primary and specialty physicians to care for their patients while in the hospital including evenings and weekends. Acting as a partner to your physician, their job is to provide adult patients with the best possible inpatient medical care in a timely and effective manner. At each step of the process, the hospitalist communicates with the patient's regular physician and family to assure the proper care is given.

Independent of the hospital, patients who see Dr. Suj or one of his partners as directed by their regular physician or are admitted through the Emergency Department, will receive a separate bill for hospitalist services, which are covered by most insurances including Medicare and Medicaid.

To learn more about the Hospitalist Program at Silver Cross, ask your physician. For a referral to a physician on staff at Silver Cross, call 1-888-660-HEAL (4325) or click here.