MOUNT VERNON — Although it may be a bit too soon to tell, the hospitalist program at Knox Community Hospital seems to be working.

Launched in August 2008, the program calls for a physician paid by the hospital — the hospitalist — to take care of a patient while he or she is in the hospital. Patient care is returned to the primary care physician once the patient is discharged.

“In the first year of any new hospitalist program, you run into concerns how the care will change for the patient,” said Dr. Philip Green, medical director of the program at KCH. “All of the hospital staff was very receptive, but the patient population was used to having their primary care physician — that was certainly a transition by patients early on.”

To read the full story, click here for the e-edition.