Hospitalist

[APACHE3]

What is the outlook for hospitalist? What's the starting salary? Are they employed by hospitals or do they have group practices? Thanks

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[novacek88]

What is the outlook for hospitalist? What's the starting salary? Are they employed by hospitals or do they have group practices? Thanks

Excellent outlook-it's becoming popular for several reasons
1. Don't have to worry about the expense for establishing your own practice
2. You get the opportunity to be on the wards, work with med students and deal with more severe cases. People who hate clinical outpatient will love being a hospitalist.
3. They are employed by the hospitals
4. Salary ranges from 150-210K (180 avg)
5. Benefit of scheduling- like the field of emergency medicine, you can set up a schedule and thus have set working hours, vacation etc.

I know a lot of internists who are going this route and avoiding private practice for all the reasons above. It's becoming a very popular field. The only drawback is the salary because you are essentially capped in regards to your earnings. You can earn a lot more in a private practice outpatient setting . But those who become hospitalists don't mind sacraficing salary because it means they can see more than complex pathology and sick patients.

 

[APACHE3]

nice post. I wondered about the cap possibility working for a hospital, but several job postings I've seen are for group practices, that are contracted out to the hospital, so maybe they have more control over their financial packages?

 

[novacek88]

nice post. I wondered about the cap possibility working for a hospital, but several job postings I've seen are for group practices, that are contracted out to the hospital, so maybe they have more control over their financial packages?

It doesn't matter, they are still being paid by the hospitals, just in an indirect manner. So you are not going to bill for every patient you see etc. It's not a possibility, it's a fact that you will be capped. So if you are going to entertain the idea of becoming a hospitalist, you must accept the fact that you don't have the potential to earn near the half a million dollar range like you can by joining a large group and becoming partner or starting your own practice. People who become hospitalists don't do so for the money; they do it for all the other perks that have been mentioned.

 

[gwen]

hey guys,

i'm curious about the lifestyle for hospitalists. do you know any female hospitalists and if so, are they able to manage their family life along with work? our hospitalists are pretty lucky as they get night coverage from the residents (they don't have shift-work or anything like that and the residents do all their o/n admissions). i hear most hospitalists work like the ER docs (in shifts)...so was wondering that works in those places.

thanks,
gwen

 

[APACHE3]

Of course Hospitalist won't rival radiologist, but with a schedule like "7 on and 7 off", you can do alot of creative things on those "off days", and with 200K in student loans, I'll probably have to do that a few years. But we'll see, maybe the hospital will take up some of my loans... (thats me holding my breath)!

 

[novacek88]

Of course Hospitalist won't rival radiologist, but with a schedule like "7 on and 7 off", you can do alot of creative things on those "off days", and with 200K in student loans, I'll probably have to do that a few years. But we'll see, maybe the hospital will take up some of my loans... (thats me holding my breath)!

Neither will it rival an internist becoming partner at a large private practice group or an established solo practice.

I think you should still consider it as an option. I'm like you in that the idea of earning a lot of money in the 400-500K range is appealing but the duties and lifestyle associated with being a hospitalist and being involved with academic medicine is quite intriguing. And 200K is a lot of money still so it's not like you can't pay off those loans. It would be one thing if you were earning 120K but 200K to 215K is a very nice amount in my opinion.

 

[APACHE3]

Yes you are right, and even 150K will be great. And I have a young family, so the lifestyle is appealing too. This career is so new, it will interesting to see where it will go. Good luck if going that way.

 

[AJM]

Everyone is saying on this thread that hospitalists are employed by the hospitals, but that is certainly not always the case. There are defintiely hospitalist groups that are hired by a specific hospital, and their salaries will often cap at a certain level. However, many large private practice groups hire their own hospitalists to take care of any of their patients when they are admitted to the hospital. These hospitalists are not employed by the hospital, and they bill for all the patients they see and procedures they do. The billing goes through their private medical group, and they get paid extra above their base salary based on how much they end up billing for. They often keep similar hours -- the groups I know do 14 days on and 14 days off. They work very hard when they are on, but when they are off, they're off. I don't believe they have the same kind of salary cap like the hospitalists employed by a hospital do, since they get a bonus salary based on how much patient care they do.

 

[novacek88]

Everyone is saying on this thread that hospitalists are employed by the hospitals, but that is certainly not always the case. There are defintiely hospitalist groups that are hired by a specific hospital, and their salaries will often cap at a certain level. However, many large private practice groups hire their own hospitalists to take care of any of their patients when they are admitted to the hospital. These hospitalists are not employed by the hospital, and they bill for all the patients they see and procedures they do. The billing goes through their private medical group, and they get paid extra above their base salary based on how much they end up billing for. They often keep similar hours -- the groups I know do 14 days on and 14 days off. They work very hard when they are on, but when they are off, they're off. I don't believe they have the same kind of salary cap like the hospitalists employed by a hospital do, since they get a bonus salary based on how much patient care they do.

This is certainly true but it's not very common any more because the hospitalist position has become quite popular and hospitals are seeking to hire their own hospitalists. Most job listings for IM involve programs seeking hospitalists.

 

[AJM]

This is certainly true but it's not very common in larger cities because hospitals in larger cities don't have much difficulty finding and hiring their own hospitalist or contracting through a hospitalist group.

The places I was talking about are in larger cities (ie Boston, SF bay area). I've never worked outside of a large city, and these are still some of the most common hospitalist groups I've come in contact with.

Each of the hospitals I've been at have had their own hospitalist group that takes care of the uninsured patients, patients with PCPs based at that hospital, or patients of unaffiliated PCPs. But in addition, there is a large private practice group that has admitting priviledges at the hospital and hires their own hospitalists who are separate from the hospital-hired hospitalists, so that they can take care of the patients who's PCPs and insurance are through that group. There are approximately the same number of private practice hospitalists as there are hospital-hired hospitalists at the places I've worked at.