Suddenly, it was over. I spent 27 years in private practice of general internal medicine in Sacramento, seeing patients in the office and in the hospital. I admitted them to the hospital directly from my office or met them in the emergency room. If they were having a complex surgery, I’d help monitor them before and after the operation. Then my local community hospital hired hospitalists. Hospitalists are physicians, whose practice is devoted to treating patients in a hospital setting. There was a brief period of co-existence, but soon the other members of my call-group decided to let the hospitalists assume care of their inpatients. Soon, no one wanted to share call for hospital care. Th