“As a hospitalist, I see those low-volume, high-acuity [cases] with a lot more frequency, because I am on labor and delivery all the time,” says Dr. Tanner Colegrove, medical director of the OB hospitalist program at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital in Illinois.

“Above and beyond, what makes a hospitalist different, is the mindset of preparing and expecting emergencies,” says Colegrove, who is the president-elect of the Society of OB-GYN Hospitalists, with about 550 member physicians. Much more than just a full-time hospital presence, she says, they offer highly honed skills in complex procedures like vaginal birth after cesarean, or VBAC.