Mark G. Aarons, M.D., has joined the Hospitalist Service at FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital, becoming the third physician on the RMH Hospitalist team.

Hospitalists are medical doctors who specialize in the care of patients who are in the hospital. They do not have offices outside the hospital. The other members of the Hospitalist Service program at Richmond Memorial are John E. Flannery, M.D., and Kelly E. King, M.D.

Dr. Aarons, who is board certified in internal medicine and nephrology, came to the RMH Hospitalist Service from Richmond Internal Medicine, which he joined in 2007. He received his premedical education from Princeton University in New Jersey and his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

He completed an internship and residency at Montefiore Hospital in Bronx, N.Y., and a residency in internal medicine at Duke University Medical Center in Durham. He later completed a nephrology fellowship at Emory University Hospitals in Atlanta.

“I am very pleased to continue my affiliation with FirstHealth of the Carolinas and with the physician, nursing and ancillary staffs of Richmond Memorial Hospital,” Dr. Aarons says. “This is a talented group of individuals devoted to the care of the citizens of Richmond County and the surrounding communities.”

Since they practice only in the hospital, the hospitalists at Richmond Memorial Hospital medically manage every aspect of a patient’s hospital stay. Because they are hospital-based, they are in a better position to respond to the immediate needs of the hospitalized patient.

In this respect, they differ from most primary care doctors who need to spend most of their time seeing patients in their offices, leaving them with a limited amount of time to care for patients in the hospital.

With hospitalists managing their care, RMH patients have the benefits of receiving high-quality care all day, every day; seeing a doctor as often as they need to; and having a doctor more readily available to speak with them or their family.

“Our hospitalists know every specialist and every diagnostic and treatment service in the hospital,” says Richmond Memorial President John Jackson. “They also know the nurses who help take care of our patients, because they work with them every day. All of this fosters communication and teamwork, which results in the best and most efficient care for our patients.”