Geriatrician or hospitalist

[baysiderny]

After investing a full year training in geriatric fellowship, I am disappointed by the pay now that I am looking for a job in this field. Will geriatric medicine ever grow to be a competitive well paying speciality? I am thinking about either working in geriatric medicine or working as a hospitalist. Hospitalist do get more than geriatricians. I love geriatrics but the pay is such a let down. Should I go in this field with a hope that in few years it will evolve to be a well paying field or I am better off working as a hospitalist?? Also, If I do decide to work in geriatrics, how do geriatrician increase their income?

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[Gastrapathy]

So you did a fellowship in IM for old people and expected to make bank? The get up and go test ain't exactly gonna buy you a new 5 series. The one thing geriatrics has going for it is the need to have geriatrics trained faculty for residencies. Otherwise, you may be better at what you do than a general internist but your scope of practice didn't change. You want to get rich, open your own nursing home business. You're more likely to end up bankrupt but there's always a chance.

 

[baysiderny]

Geriatric faculty positions pay horribly. They expect you to run around and pay nothing. I don't blame them. If the reimbursement is low, what can they do. The most important question was, will geriatric change for the better in few years? If I choose to go in it now, will it be beneficial in say 10, 15 years?

 

[gutonc]

You will always have a job. It will likely pay the same or slightly less than a similar Gen Med job (PCP or hospitalist). But you're not going to make GI money. Or even Endo money honestly.

 

[CptNemo]

Some savvy geriatricians around here are making good money in a very tight market overall (SoCal) doing either straight SNFist or a combo of clinic + SNFist or hospitalist/nocturnist + SNFist. Some of them are just IM trained/some are IM + Geri... I haven't learned all their secrets yet, but they tell me that work in the nursing homes is very low overhead and by getting cozy with certain SNFs (getting medical directorships, etc.), they see a lot of patients in a short amount of time and make north of $300k doing no procedures... not sure how typical/atypical this is...

 

[IM2GI]

So you did a fellowship in IM for old people and expected to make bank? The get up and go test ain't exactly gonna buy you a new 5 series. The one thing geriatrics has going for it is the need to have geriatrics trained faculty for residencies. Otherwise, you may be better at what you do than a general internist but your scope of practice didn't change. You want to get rich, open your own nursing home business. You're more likely to end up bankrupt but there's always a chance.

Genuinely made me laugh, well done.

 

[rokshana]

You will always have a job. It will likely pay the same or slightly less than a similar Gen Med job (PCP or hospitalist). But you're not going to make GI money. Or even Endo money honestly.

there's endo money?

 

[asdf0987]

Hospitalist definitely affords a potentially more flexible lifestyle (I have colleagues who do 2 weeks on 2 weeks off or 7d on 7d off) and when you are off there's no call. From what I understand nursing home and long term care type work can have a lot of call.

 

[medrest]

My program had a large geriatrics fellowship program. We used to attend a lot of their lectures. No one was interested in that fellowship. Initially I wanted to do it but later I did not like it. Only chief residents used to do that as they did not study well during third year as they were chief residents. Hospitalists get same or better pay than them.

 

[Nivakia]

you dont need a fellowship to see nursing home patients.

 

[Moose A Moose]

You must be a saint... Med school, residency & a fellowship and only now you're looking at compensation.