Hospital pharmacists pay cuts

[DOOM N GLOOM]

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We’ve heard about what’s going on with pharmacist salaries in the retail setting. Anyone have insights into whether the downward pressure of salaries is being felt in the hospital setting yet? Where would we first expect to see this happen? In the large institutional settings?

 

[sozetone]

We’ve heard about what’s going on with pharmacist salaries in the retail setting. Anyone have insights into whether the downward pressure of salaries is being felt in the hospital setting yet? Where would we first expect to see this happen? In the large institutional settings?

Yes in Florida. I just talked to a staff from memorial west (lauderdale area) and its 40-45 an hour? im retail manager so all she said was it was the "new" rate and lower than before. that sound low to you?

 

[gwarm01]

Yes in Florida. I just talked to a staff from memorial west (lauderdale area) and its 40-45 an hour? im retail manager so all she said was it was the "new" rate and lower than before. that sound low to you?

That's about the starting rate I was offered in South Florida a few years back.

 

[sozetone]

That's about the starting rate I was offered in South Florida a few years back.

so thats normal hospital staff pay?

 

[MatCauthon]

one of the hospital directors was talking lowering the starting wage down to $35 per hour to get it more in line with where it "should be." they said Medicare reimbursements were going to strain hospital budgets and everyone including the doctors would face salary decreases. I didn't ask if hospital administrators and the consultants advising these cuts would also take a salary cut.

 

[lord999]

one of the hospital directors was talking lowering the starting wage down to $35 per hour to get it more in line with where it "should be." they said Medicare reimbursements were going to strain hospital budgets and everyone including the doctors would face salary decreases. I didn't ask if hospital administrators and the consultants advising these cuts would also take a salary cut.

They are. My colleagues at McKinsey and Deloitte are getting lower rate billable hours (and if the management consultants are getting screwed, that's a bad sign for the industry in general). For industry consulting, my rates have stayed relatively stable, but I know some of the high end ones have come down. Also, the probable best Bayesian statistician in the world (my vote certainly would be for him) just recently resigned from his academic job, and thus consults quite a bit more now for the companies in a way that closed off the adaptive clinical trials consulting market in some way.

That said, the market for hospital pharmacists in my Midwest area is still around $51-$55 starting with a $72 ceiling (that being the one pharmacist in an outer-ring suburb night hospital pharmacist in the most Republican area in a solidly Democratic state). We have not been able to absorb the new grads lately, most of them are leaving the cold for warmer climates, but we are definitely even losing our best to elsewhere as there are no positions even for them.

 

[DOOM N GLOOM]

Any data points from the CA folks here? (I ask because pharmacy goes as CA goes, IMO)

I believe most hospitals are unionized so starting wages should be tethered to a certain price... unless those contracts are being renegotiated.

 

[PharmDBro2017]

A large hospital network in TX offered me $48/hr last year. I laughingly told them no, but apparently enough people have taken that offer to where the HR department starts everyone at that rate now.

A year prior to that it was $56/hr. Sad.

 

[gwarm01]

so thats normal hospital staff pay?

It's not unusual for the region, but salaries have been lower there for a while.

 

[confettiflyer]

Any data points from the CA folks here? (I ask because pharmacy goes as CA goes, IMO)

I believe most hospitals are unionized so starting wages should be tethered to a certain price... unless those contracts are being renegotiated.

Haven’t seen any issues, I’m pegging the starting rates to be around $75/hr for new inpatient pharmacists (post-PGY1) up to $85-90/hr for 3-5yr experienced. COLA has been modest, but I’m not sure if it’s keeping up with housing costs, so a nominal reduction of 1% YOY seems reasonable to assume.

If you exclude housing, it’s flat or modestly increasing. Most pharmacists I know have purchased homes already, so increasing housing costs are not an issue.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[gwarm01]

A large hospital network in TX offered me $48/hr last year. I laughingly told them no, but apparently enough people have taken that offer to where the HR department starts everyone at that rate now.

A year prior to that it was $56/hr. Sad.

I was offered $48/hr for a decentralized clinical pharmacist position at a larger DFW hospital back in 2015. I didn't take the job, but I wonder if that was a market rate at the time?

 

[Niosh]

A hospital near me that I like to keep tabs on was offering 100k, down from 105k a few years back. Most recently they didn't even have any open positions, so I guess that means 0k?

 

[OmiPharmD]

We recently filled a 7 on/7 off overnight position at $57/hr (70 hr pay period).

Our starting pay is $55/hr now with a max of $72/hr for hybrid A/B.

~2 hrs from Chicago, IL.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[Rouelle]

I live in an metropolitan area, albeit not a classically “desirable” metropolitan area. The starting hourly rate for hospital positions around here is in the 50s. I declined an offer at a large hospital for $47 just shy of 2 years ago in favor of more money (and better everything else) at a smaller hospital across the street.

 

[samven582]

56$ nyc area

 

[jjcayce123]

I started out as a new grad at $49.50 at my old hospital. I recently took a position back in my home state of VA at $55/hour. The only major downfall is switch from EPIC which is without a doubt the best system to god awful Cerner at my new hospital.

 

[deleted205891]

56$ nyc area

Ouch! That's terrible for living in NYC...So strange that NYC and Bay Area are similar costs of living with such discordant salaries. For crying out loud, Baltimore pays about that for starting pharmacists, and is way cheaper.

 

[rxmommy7]

My hospital gave me 2 raises this year. So there’s an occasional perk to living in the middle of nowhere.