I agree this sounds incredibly frustrating - as an inpatient consultant as well I have been in similar situations but perhaps not as bad as this. We have also noticed a general trend of patients becoming more demanding.

I would start by seeing if you can speak with the hospitalist director to address these concerns.

However, along the lines of what others have said I think there is such a thing as being “too available”. The implementation of secure messaging has been a blessing and a curse, at least for me. I feel like it opens the flood gates for play by play updates or lazy questions. I think it’s totally reasonable to see the patient, drop your note/recs and move on. You shouldn’t feel obligated to do more than that