Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine & Infectious Diseases

The Medical College of Georgia's Department of Pediatrics established the Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine in 2018. The Pediatric Hospitalist team works solely in the Children's Hospital of Georgia inpatient units and oversees all medical care during a child's hospital stay - including post-surgical patients and patients with subspecialty care needs.

The Section of Pediatric Infectious Diseases was merged with Hospital Medicine in 2019. These specialists diagnose and treat children with a wide variety of infectious diseases or serious, complicated infections. They focus on infection prevention for high risk patients and managing infections if they occur.

Division Facts

• We have 2 to 3 hospitalist teams depending on seasonal variation and inpatient volume.
• In addition to general pediatrics, we co-manage patients with subspecialties as primary providers.
• Inpatient subspecialties we manage include:
  • Pulmonology
  • Nephrology
  • Rheumatology
  • Gastroenterology
  • Neurology
  • ENT
  • Orthopedics
  • Endocrinology

How this Field Developed

Drs. Robert M. Wachter and Lee Goldman from the University of California, San Francisco, first used the term "hospitalist" in the New England Journal of Medicine in August 1996. They anticipated then, and we are seeing now, a rapid growth in interest and numbers of these physicians who focus on the hospitalized patient.

Pediatric Hospital Medicine is a relatively new subspecialty, having just been granted recognition by the American Board of Medical Specialties in 2016. The American Academy of Pediatrics started its Section on Hospital Medicine in 2000 with 417 members. Today, the group has more than 2,000 members, comprised of pediatricians who work primarily in hospitals and care for children in many hospital areas.