Southwest Florida's Health and Wellness Magazine Health and Wellness Articles
Accountable Inpatient Medicine “AIM” was founded on the basis of providing a sense of continuity to an area of medicine that has always seemed to struggle. AIM was founded by Dr. Richard “Alex” Houston and Dr. Gaby Coatti just out of residency. Trained in internal medicine with a focus on hospital acute care, Dr. Houston and Dr. Coatti noticed there was a lack of continuity, communication, and relationship between the physicians in the inpatient world and the outpatient world; and the patients are the ones that end up suffering. Going to medical school at LECOM in Bradenton, meeting his wife and building a family in the Sarasota area, Dr. Houston reached out to his good friend and colleague, Dr. Coatti, to solve these issues. After completing residency together in Palm Beach, they made it their mission to return back home to the Sarasota-Bradenton area to create a hospitalist group uniquely structured to nurture the relationships with primary care physicians and subspecialists. Per Dr. Houston, “I met my wife here, our families are here, I went to medical school here, and I have built so many amazing relationships within the community. Being able to provide care to my friends and family brings me so much joy, and providing an unprecedented service to many of the outpatient specialists in this area is what drives me to be accountable in every way…thus Accountable Inpatient Medicine was born.”
AIM is a local hospitalist group that integrates and collaborates with primary care physicians and subspecialists to provide quality care for their patients when hospitalized. With an aging population of growing healthcare needs, primary care physicians are finding it difficult to accompany their patients’ care beyond the outpatient setting. This, in addition to the growing complexity of inpatient medicine, has left a gap in healthcare that Accountable Inpatient Medicine aims to helps bridge.
AIM has a specialized transitional care team whose sole job is to communicate to outpatient specialists on patient status and ensure seamless transitions between the inpatient and outpatient world. This transitional care team also allows one point of contact no matter which hospital their patient is at.
With excellent communication comes a streamlined admission process, direct admissions, if appropriate, which saves emergency department costs and allows sicker patients to be seen more promptly. All of which shows improved clinical outcomes, decreased length of stay, decreased readmissions, better patient satisfaction, saves healthcare costs, but most important it provides a sense of comfort and continuity for the patients themselves.
Dr. Houston and Dr. Coatti have formed an efficient practice that is rapidly growing. AIM is adequately staffed and equipped to service primary care physicians and consultants interested in providing a better continuity of care for their patients. They cover the following locations: Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Lakewood Ranch Medical Center, Doctor’s Hospital of Sarasota, Blake Medical Center, Venice Regional Bayfront Health, and Encompass Health Inpatient Rehab Facility. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, AIM is proud to be on the front line of patient care. AIM has hired new physicians and advanced practice providers doubling down on their commitment to their community. For patients, primary care physicians, or other outpatient specialists interested in partnering with AIM, check them out at www.aimgroup.health or by calling directly at 941-499-2700.
