Hospitalists

[directdoc]

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I have a few questions on how the job of a pediatric hospitalist works.

1. Do you just do your regular pediatric residency of 3 years? Is there any other training you need to be a hospitalist?

2. How does the salary work? Do you get paid with a base salary or per patient? Obviously its not like private practice because its much less business oriented. On this note, who takes care of all the business parts if you're working in a hospital.

3. Most of the hospitalist jobs tend to be Internal Medicine. How difficult is it to find a hospitalist job in pediatrics? Obviously jobs are very limited. So is it pretty much impossible one?

4. Many hospitalist jobs have 7 days on/ 7 days off with 12 hour shifts. What do you do during this shifts...make rounds?

I know its a lot of questions, but I haven't heard much about hospitalists' jobs. Any help would be great.

 

[directdoc]

Anyone? Somebody mentioned that peds hospitalists are not very widely known so it would be impossible to get a hospitalist job...

 

[red453]

You may want to ask your questions in the Mentor Forum under pediatrics. They have a hospitalist answering questions. My 2 cents though:

1) 3 year of pediatric training is what is required. Maybe one day there will be a hospitalist track or fellowship, but there are none currently.

2) Most hospitals pay a base pay with incentive for productivity. Usually physicians are part of a group (in a hospital) and the group handles payment and they pay you.

3) I do not believe they are rare. I believe they are most commonly encountered at larger children's hospitals however.

4) You would perform the duties that all inpatient medicine requires. Pre-rounds, Rounds, Follow up, Talking to consults, Performing procedures, Re-rounding, etc.

 

[pedshospitalist]

Hi- I'll give you a few answers here- I can't seem to figure out the multi quote in the mentorship section...

I have a few questions on how the job of a pediatric hospitalist works.

1. Do you just do your regular pediatric residency of 3 years? Is there any other training you need to be a hospitalist? Just regular 3 year residency training at this point, though there are 4-5 hospitalist fellowships (primarily for those wanting to go into academics).

2. How does the salary work? Do you get paid with a base salary or per patient? Obviously its not like private practice because its much less business oriented. On this note, who takes care of all the business parts if you're working in a hospital. This will vary quite a bit by institution, especially for- vs non-profit. In our institution we are paid a salary, with a productivity bonus, and we have work RVU targets (RVU= relative value unit). We have lots of business people at the hospital who figure these things out, but it's so helpful for physicians to have a clue, because otherwise we get totally used.

3. Most of the hospitalist jobs tend to be Internal Medicine. How difficult is it to find a hospitalist job in pediatrics? Obviously jobs are very limited. So is it pretty much impossible one? Jobs are SO not limited! Many programs are going to a hospitalist model, and the field is new, so there are lots of opportunities, in a variety of settings, especially for people with an academic interest!

4. Many hospitalist jobs have 7 days on/ 7 days off with 12 hour shifts. What do you do during this shifts...make rounds? One hospitalist leader says "When you've seen one hospitalist program, you've seen one" (Jack Percelay); there are many different models. During shifts you may round, admit patients, teach residents, do procedures or sedations depending on your program, communicate with the ED, PCP, subspecialists, etc, and of course, see patients and their families.

I know its a lot of questions, but I haven't heard much about hospitalists' jobs. Any help would be great.

Since the pediatric hospitalist field is so new, there is no one way that things are being done. Just go in with your eyes open, and ask lots of questions. The AAP has a section on hospital medicine that you can join, that has a lot of information about being a hospitalist.