Hourly Salary by Specialty

[TupacalipseT96]

So I know I've wondered about this, and perhaps others.

I've seen many threads about either annual salary by specialty or lifestyle/working week hours by specialty.

So I was curious to see how the two combined... what is the hourly compensation for physicians by specialty.

I took the often-cited allied-physician salary survey and combined their numbers with the JAMA hours-worked/week by specialty survey.

Obviously this is a very rough, sloppy calculation, but it's still interesting to see a specialty's hourly worth.

Take a look and tell me what you think:

http://pantheon.yale.edu/~jlb236/salary_per_hour2.htm

I had to extrapolate some for hours/week for specialties not listed in JAMA but listed in allied-physician. Some I just didn't bother extrapolating. Such extrapolations included: using same hour/week for all sub-specialties of IM, Anesth., FP, ORS, and other* surgery specialties. Any such value for hours that wasn't explicitly listed by JAMA is listed in italics.
Also, I assumed working 44/52 weeks of the year.

Anyway, at the least it seems like another interesting angle on the allied-physian survey.

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[Trismegistus4]

Most physicians are not paid by the hour, so these are not meaningful figures.

 

[TupacalipseT96]

I understand that but it still gives a number to your compensation/time.

Obviously physician pay is not by the hour, but that does not mean you cant think about how much your time will be worth in specific specialties.

These are not hourly wages but relative value assignments to your time assuming you work the the hours of the "average" physician. A thread a few posts down inquires about "pay-to-hour ratio", so I think this a legitimate (though admittedly very rough) depiction.

 

[CoryChevalier]

Seems like Urology has a lot of hours....I was pretty sure they have really good call hours in comparison to other surgical fields, especially general surgery, so I'm wondering why their hours are so high

Edit: Ah nevermind, you explained the reason for the hours in your last paragraph....I really gotta start reading whole posts...

 

[TupacalipseT96]

actually Urology is explicitly listed in the JAMA survey as 60.5 hrs/week compared to 60 hrs for GS. I didn't extrapolate those.

Urology probably has that reputation for other reasons. *shrug*

 

[Strength&Speed]

Most physicians are not paid by the hour, so these are not meaningful figures.

Jesus man, read the guys post.

 

[DBR]

Yeah. I'm definitely going to try to match into one of those < 50 hours a week specialties.

So I know I've wondered about this, and perhaps others.

I've seen many threads about either annual salary by specialty or lifestyle/working week hours by specialty.

So I was curious to see how the two combined... what is the hourly compensation for physicians by specialty.

I took the often-cited allied-physician salary survey and combined their numbers with the JAMA hours-worked/week by specialty survey.

Obviously this is a very rough, sloppy calculation, but it's still interesting to see a specialty's hourly worth.

Take a look and tell me what you think:

http://pantheon.yale.edu/~jlb236/salary_per_hour2.htm

I had to extrapolate some for hours/week for specialties not listed in JAMA but listed in allied-physician. Some I just didn't bother extrapolating. Such extrapolations included: using same hour/week for all sub-specialties of IM, Anesth., FP, ORS, and other* surgery specialties. Any such value for hours that wasn't explicitly listed by JAMA is listed in italics.
Also, I assumed working 44/52 weeks of the year.

Anyway, at the least it seems like another interesting angle on the allied-physian survey.

 

[njbmd]

Moved to Topics in Healthcare as this is not an educational issue.

 

[AK_MD2BE]

Tupa...well done. Don't njbmd rain on your parade.

 

[southerndoc]

46 hours/week for emergency medicine? Ha! That's hilarious. Most ED docs work between 30-36 hours/week.

 

[bkpa2med]

Salaries are for suckers.

 

[Chizwheel]

actually Urology is explicitly listed in the JAMA survey as 60.5 hrs/week compared to 60 hrs for GS. I didn't extrapolate those.

Urology probably has that reputation for other reasons. *shrug*

Urology is one of those fields that has huge variations in the number of hours worked. Those docs that do big whack cases like cystectomy and neobladders and other complex oncologic cases can average up to 70 hrs/wk. General urologists that take less complex cases and do more office based work can range anywhere from 40-50 hrs/wk. Just depends on what you want to do. Interestingly enough, the major dollars are in the quick office procedures. Cystoscopy which takes less than 10 minutes gets reimbursed at around $350. Try that for hourly wages.

 

[MOHS_01]

There exists as much of a variance within a specialty as between specialties. Total compensation for most practicing physicians is directly tied, one way or another, to productivity. The "hourly" compensation figure is a calculation based upon far too many variables that cannot be controlled for -- it can serve as a "snapshot", if you will, of the workload and hours invested broadly across specialties, but it is no way an accurate predictor of compensation.

I have labored (fruitlessly) to incorporate into medical curriculum a brief tutorial on specialty selection, how private practice reimbursement systems operate, systematic job opportunity evaluation, etc -- the powers that be simply do not want this type of material taught "on the school's time". My argument has been, and continues to be, that there is no "school's time" -- their only purpose for existence is the training of future physicians, and it is in their best interest to know these things before hand (as opposed to the current trial and failure system that all to many employ).

Once my management and consulting firm gets off the ground, these classes will be offered after hours for anyone interested.

 

[Strength&Speed]

There exists as much of a variance within a specialty as between specialties. Total compensation for most practicing physicians is directly tied, one way or another, to productivity. The "hourly" compensation figure is a calculation based upon far too many variables that cannot be controlled for -- it can serve as a "snapshot", if you will, of the workload and hours invested broadly across specialties, but it is no way an accurate predictor of compensation.

I have labored (fruitlessly) to incorporate into medical curriculum a brief tutorial on specialty selection, how private practice reimbursement systems operate, systematic job opportunity evaluation, etc -- the powers that be simply do not want this type of material taught "on the school's time". My argument has been, and continues to be, that there is no "school's time" -- their only purpose for existence is the training of future physicians, and it is in their best interest to know these things before hand (as opposed to the current trial and failure system that all to many employ).

Once my management and consulting firm gets off the ground, these classes will be offered after hours for anyone interested.

Stick your head in the sand....stick your head in the sand. Always a great idea, isn't it? When will they learn that this is only worsening matters? You ignore a problem and it gets worse...bottom line. Med schools have to start being upfront on these issues, they are taking advantage of idealistic and well meaning people--who later turn into angry, misled adults.