Lets talk salary... hospitalist salaries

[JoBlo]

I've heard some pretty wide ranging numbers when it comes to the salary a hospitalist can make. A program director once told me to expect to make about $180k as a hospitalist, a chief resident once mentioned that he got a $220k offer, and a IM junior resident once told me that a friend of his got a $300k offer from a hospital in the south-east.

What other numbers have people heard as far as hospitalist salaries? Please share.🙂

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[xalatan]

my husband is going take an offer of 250+production bonus+benefits as a hospitalist......once in 4 days call....

 

[bkpa2med]

my husband is going take an offer of 250+production bonus+benefits as a hospitalist......once in 4 days call....

What state is this in?

 

[Atlas]

my husband is going take an offer of 250+production bonus+benefits as a hospitalist......once in 4 days call....

My buddy who is a PGY2 IM (who was accepted into a DO cards fellowship) was offered 300k+ in TX (salary + production) to start if he decided to bypass the fellowship. He's not going to do that, but he was shocked at the offer.

 

[Atlas]

my husband is going take an offer of 250+production bonus+benefits as a hospitalist......once in 4 days call....

A job in TN...

"First year salary is $192,400 plus moving and sign-on. Up to $90,000 available for loan assistance."

 

[JoBlo]

my husband is going take an offer of 250+production bonus+benefits as a hospitalist......once in 4 days call....

Q4 call... that's sorta brutal for the long term. How much vacation a year?

 

[xalatan]

Q4 call... that's sorta brutal for the long term. How much vacation a year?[/QUO

when taking call from home,Q4 call is OK for us.....

and this offer is in one of southern states......

 

[Vaderize]

Generally, if you get out of the northeast/mid-atlantic, the salaries are much higher.

$300,000k is quite high for a hospitalist; it sounds to me like this kind of job would require not only a lot of call, but probably a lot of weekend rounding and what-not.

Was it a straight salary, or benefits/incentives that added up to that amount?

There is a major difference between the two.

 

[JoBlo]

Was it a straight salary, or benefits/incentives that added up to that amount?

No clue. Just hearsay from a what a resident told me a friend told him.

 

[fado]

My uncle lives in Beaumont,Texas.. he's bin an IM attending only like 5 years and he earns $250,000+bonus.the bonus is due to him being a partner in the hospital. wat confuses me is he hasnt even specialised.hw can he earn all that much nd ALSO be a partner?

 

[salmonella]

My uncle lives in Beaumont,Texas.. he's bin an IM attending only like 5 years and he earns $250,000+bonus.the bonus is due to him being a partner in the hospital. wat confuses me is he hasnt even specialised.hw can he earn all that much nd ALSO be a partner?

I heard from medicine residents that hospitalist salaries are miserably low in big cities on east and west coasts, starting in the range of $120,000-$140,000, working one week on, one week off. In academic places, salary range is about the same but their work schedule is generally different.

 

[R-Me-Doc]

when taking call from home,Q4 call is OK for us.....

Not when you're getting called 53 times a night and half of them require you to go in to the hospital . . .

Anectodal IM hospitalist story: a colleague of mine once logged all his pages over a 24 hour weekend on-call period. Overall pattern was one page every 3 minutes 😱

Caveat emptor

 

[xalatan]

Not when you're getting called 53 times a night and half of them require you to go in to the hospital . . .

Anectodal IM hospitalist story: a colleague of mine once logged all his pages over a 24 hour weekend on-call period. Overall pattern was one page every 3 minutes 😱

Caveat emptor

Let me wait till july so that I can give you a reply from our experience....

 

[xalatan]

Generally, if you get out of the northeast/mid-atlantic, the salaries are much higher.

$300,000k is quite high for a hospitalist; it sounds to me like this kind of job would require not only a lot of call, but probably a lot of weekend rounding and what-not.

Was it a straight salary, or benefits/incentives that added up to that amount?

There is a major difference between the two.

250 is straight salary (benefits are not added up)....

 

[t33sg1rl]

A doctor in my hospital told me that in our low cost of living midsized Midwest city, hospitalists are starting at 150-175K. He didn't say anything about bonuses/benefits stuff like that and I didn't ask. It would sure be nice to have a starting annual salary equal to or greater than total indebtedness, but I guess medicine doesn't work that way.

 

[Becket]

I guess like in real estate, the 3 most important factors in deciding salary are "location, location, location". Here's my personal experience...started hospitalist work last year, small community hospital (non-teaching) about 30 minutes north of New York city. Schedule is too complex to get into here, but in short, it's not the classic 7-on, 7-off. No home call. Base salary:$150K, with production bonuses, I'll be lucky to pull in $190K. I interviewed exclusively in the northeast, lowest offer I got (talking base salary) was $125 in Connecticut...highest $210 in New Hampshire. Most offers fell in the 140-160 range, but not all included production bonuses.

 

[joejabjab]

Can someone explaint to me what "7-on, 7-off" means?

If that's work one week and have the next week off. . .that's a lot of time off!!!

-joejab

 

[gwen]

i'm a hospitalist. i work twelve 12-hour shifts a month (mostly days, some nights)...sometimes 14 shifts. my shifts are spread out over the month...2 days on, 3 days off, one night, 3 days off, 3 days on...you get the point.

seriously, the pay is not "great" if you look at it in terms of whole numbers (its comparable to a big city hospitalist salary). but i get half a month off...so really, the pay is grrrreat as a salary/work ratio - i'm forcing myself to moonlight b/c i'm getting bored at home, plus, extra money at my age won't hurt the future. 😉

 

[joejabjab]

Hi,
thanks for the quick reply.

Do you get paid per hour for moonlighting? Or is that worked into your salary in some other way?

Do you have a clinic where you see other patients?

Thanks! The hospitalist job seems very appealing.

 

[Vaderize]

i'm a hospitalist. i work twelve 12-hour shifts a month (mostly days, some nights)...sometimes 14 shifts. my shifts are spread out over the month...2 days on, 3 days off, one night, 3 days off, 3 days on...you get the point.

seriously, the pay is not "great" if you look at it in terms of whole numbers (its comparable to a big city hospitalist salary). but i get half a month off...so really, the pay is grrrreat as a salary/work ratio - i'm forcing myself to moonlight b/c i'm getting bored at home, plus, extra money at my age won't hurt the future. 😉

If you don't mind my asking, what area of the country do you work in?

Also, do you find you would have enough time to pursue other activities, such as medical-director type work, or working part-time on cosmetic procedures (something I'm looking into)?

Thanks!

 

[gwen]

i'm in pennsylvania.

i moonlight at a different hospital, so yes, its hourly pay.

and yes, i have a ridiculous amount of free time, hence the moonlighting (we don't have kids yet)...and i'm also getting into some administrative work.

oh, and i don't have a clinic...i hate outpatient IM.

 

[raptor5]

What you have to take into account for those high salaries are your census. For you to pull in 300K you are seeing a crap load of patients. Think of how many patients you have to admit, round on, and D/C to bill 2X that in order for a hospital/group to pay you that much. Sure you may start high but I imagine that after a year or so you salary is going to be tied into your production. I met a hospitalist that made around that figure but also had a 50 patient census. That is why it was 7 on, 7 off. Otherwise you will burn out quick. He said it took about 3 years to get into his groove. You round very quickly and efficiently and sleep when you can. PRN orders need to be idiot proof. And consult out anything requiring too much leg work.

 

[salmonella]

50 patients? That's nuts! Hope you are just kidding...
At my program, IM residents complained loud enough about having 7 or 8 patients on the service.

 

[TexasBoy]

I've heard the 40-50 patients cap as well. Though I think that by Texas Law there only needs to be a note every 3rd day (as opposed to academic medicine policies of notes everyday from what I understand).

Scary to have that sorta workload.

 

[gwen]

whoever tells you they are making $300K a year solely as a hospitalist is blowing smoke up your you-know-what. and yes, seeing 40-50 pts a day is crazy...i would quit that job (hey, my friend who was doing that for 2 months, just did). i think its terrible patient care.

 

[iatrosB]

whoever tells you they are making $300K a year solely as a hospitalist is blowing smoke up your you-know-what. and yes, seeing 40-50 pts a day is crazy...i would quit that job (hey, my friend who was doing that for 2 months, just did). i think its terrible patient care.

Sounds greedy if you ask me. Just another way to line the pockets of the doc, mistakes are just waiting to happen in that environment.

 

[TexasBoy]

I can definately see where probably very little "doctoring" would be achieviable with that sorta patient load. Just a heuristical cog in the assembly line.👎

 

[brc12]

300k a year with some experience and added administrative duties isn't unheard of. The assistant medical director at my previous job made about 350k. This was with quite minimal administrative duties and adding in shareholder bonuses, shift differentials etc.

 

[gwen]

i said "SOLELY" as a hospitalist.

 

[brc12]

Ok if you wan't to be nitpicky about it, I know people who work "SOLELY" as a hospitalist making about 300k. And how does participating in committees or attending to administrative functions WITHIN the hospitalist group not count as working as a hospitalist?

 

[gwen]

i'm not trying to be nitpicky...anyone can make more money with administrative duties...even RNs, so what's the big deal about a hospitalist doing so? i know an RN who makes 250K because she is the vice president of all nursing activities at our hospital.

i'm just saying that just hospitalist work can get you a max of 200K. not trying to start some nitpicking argument.

 

[salmonella]

Why not hire a ton of NPs to round on patients and do the scut work for you (copying vital signs, discharge social stuff)? That will give you time to focus on the sicker patients who really need doctor's attention.

 

[babyruth]

Look at the Society of Hospitalist Medicine stats, I beleive last year's average was around $180K. You can also find more demographics about call schedules etc. on there. SHM is a pretty good resource and is free.

 

[allendo]

Why not hire a ton of NPs to round on patients and do the scut work for you (copying vital signs, discharge social stuff)? That will give you time to focus on the sicker patients who really need doctor's attention.

Because they are freaking nurses NOT DOCTORS! We shouldn't keep allowing them to act like doctors.

 

[brc12]

Your example is an RN doing a different job. I was not talking about an MD doing a different job, just additional responsibilities on top of their regular hospitalist duties. Even so, I know plenty of hospitalists that make well over 200k. I made 195k my first year as a hospitalist - with more experience and a shareholder bonus I would have been about 260k or so. I know several hospitalists who make 300-350k (who are working SOLELY as hospitalists per your strict definition.).

 

[mig26x]

I have a question to all the hospitalist that have posted in this topic. Do you see yourself as a hospitalist for the rest of your life or is this like a transitional point in your life? I ask this because I read somewhere that the majority of people who are hospitalist only do it for like 2 or 3 years and then go to fellowship training or IM inpatient-outpatient practice.

 

[Atlas]

This is a question for those practicing hospitalists in the room. How do you go about doing extra shifts for more $$$. I'd be tempted while I'm young to pick up extra shifts either with locums or moonlighting to help pay down some debt. Is this pretty easy to do? Where can I go to find more information about this? Thanks.

Atlas

 

[TexasBoy]

Why not hire a ton of NPs to round on patients and do the scut work for you (copying vital signs, discharge social stuff)? That will give you time to focus on the sicker patients who really need doctor's attention.

This is probably a good idea. I'm not 100% of the rules for notes, but I believe that as long as the MD writes a note every 3 days it good. If you've got some hand-picked PAs or NPs that will split the load and know WHEN to get your attention it would be a good team. I've worked a couple of inpatient rotations where whenever the attending was out, he had a PA that he trusted peek in to see if he needed to be called or not.

 

[salmonella]

If you want to be a shift-work hospitalist, how's that different than being an emergency room physician? You don't get the continuity of care like the traditional internists get, and you get paid less than an ER doc.

 

[Atlas]

If you want to be a shift-work hospitalist, how's that different than being an emergency room physician? You don't get the continuity of care like the traditional internists get, and you get paid less than an ER doc.

Although, I wonder how the increases in reimbursement to IM as a specialty (13%) this past year and likely (hopefully) up-coming years will affect hospitalist salaries? My guess is as good as any, but I'd say they would have to go up, considering the increased reimbursement for non-procedural activities. 😎

 

[salmonella]

In reality the reimbursement for IM only went up about 5%. Although it was approved for 13%, Medicare could not make sufficient cut in other specialties' reimbursement to free up enough funding for IM. So the best they could do ws 5% increase.

 

[brc12]

Atlas, how you get extra shifts for more $$$ is completely dependent on the group you are working for. Currently I am in a quite large group (40 full and part time hospitalists) so there's always people looking for others to pick up shifts from them, so getting 20-21 shifts a month is not a problem. A lot of extra shifts that people tend to want to give away are usually evenings, nights and weekends if you don't mind working those. At my previous position one of the locums staff worked full time at the university med center, then did 7 shifts at the private hospital I was at on his "off week." The specifics of your group and your contract would tend to dictate how you can work extra. (Don't take it as guaranteed that you could even do moonlighting work outside the group.)
I do see myself working as a hospitalist for the forseeable future. I don't think I really want to put myself through 3-4 more years of training for fellowship, and outpatient internal medicine just isn't my cup of tea.

 

[TexasBoy]

If you want to be a shift-work hospitalist, how's that different than being an emergency room physician? You don't get the continuity of care like the traditional internists get, and you get paid less than an ER doc.

The difference is that a hospitalist won't be bothered with as much of the trivialities that walk into the ER constantly. If a patient makes it to admission, then 90% of the time they are really sick. Working against the socioeconomic cunundrums that plague healthcare is also slightly (if only just a bit) less, and their is also less time spend with the obviously mentally ill, which I would gladly take a pay cut to not have to work with constantly.

ER docs make more money because they have to constantly deal with more annoying baloney. The higher pay is their to try to offset that a bit.

 

[Atlas]

In reality the reimbursement for IM only went up about 5%. Although it was approved for 13%, Medicare could not make sufficient cut in other specialties' reimbursement to free up enough funding for IM. So the best they could do ws 5% increase.

Excuse me Mr. Know-it-all! You are correct. I doubled checked and it went up 5%. However, the point I was trying to make was the FP and IM went up nicely in reimbursement while everyone else took a hit in pay!

 

[MacGyver]

Why not hire a ton of NPs to round on patients and do the scut work for you (copying vital signs, discharge social stuff)? That will give you time to focus on the sicker patients who really need doctor's attention.

Because eventually Medicare and the insurance companies are going to wise up to this scam and with a stroke of their magic pen eliminate any "supervision" fees you get from them.

Just ask hospitalists in Ohio who recently lost hte ability to bill for PA hospitalist services.

 

[mig26x]

"The question is, 'Do I have a God complex?' Which makes me wonder if this... lawyer... has any idea as to the kind of grades one has to receive in college to be accepted at a top medical school. If you have the vaguest clue as to how talented someone has to be to lead a surgical team. I have an M.D. from Harvard. I am board certified in cardio-thoracic medicine and trauma surgery. I have been awarded citations from seven different medical boards in New England, and I am never, ever, sick at sea. So I ask you: When someone goes in to that chapel and they fall on their knees and they pray to God that their wife doesn't miscarry, or that their daughter doesn't bleed to death, or that their mother doesn't suffer acute neural trauma from post-operative shock, who do you think they're praying to? Now, you go ahead and read your Bible... Dennis, and you go to your church, and with any luck you might win the annual raffle, but if you're looking for God, He was in operating room number two on November seventeenth, and He doesn't like to be second guessed. You ask me if I have a God complex? Let me tell you something. I am God." - Alec Baldwin as Dr. Jed Hill, from the movie Malice


Out of topic, but this is one of the best movies quotes ever!!!! LOL.

 

[Atlas]

In my best Team America World Police Voice "MATT DAMON!!!" Alec Balwain...He's...he's the greatest actor EVER! There's no way I can beat him!

HAHAAHA. THAT WAS A GREAT MOVIE!!!😀