A look at paid time off How does your vacation time stack up?
Published in the March 2010 issue of Today's Hospitalist
IN A SPECIALTY LIKE HOSPITAL MEDICINE where large blocks of time off are common, the notion of paid time off can be a delicate issue. Some employers balk at the very notion, while others insist that it's essential to prevent burnout and enhance recruiting. To get some perspective on paid time off, here's a look at the data we gathered in the 2010 Today's Hospitalist Compensation & Career Survey.
How much paid time off do hospitalists receive?
Just under half of hospitalists receive no time off. But just over one-quarter say they get more than three weeks of paid time off—and hospitalists on average report receiving 1.69 weeks of paid time off.
Paid time by specialty, employment type
Sort the data by specialty, and some trends emerge. Pediatric hospitalists, for example, receive more paid time off (2.6 weeks) than adult hospitalists (1.45 weeks).
Another factor—who hospitalists work for—yields other trends. Hospitalists working for universities and medical schools, for example, report receiving the most paid time off (2.26 weeks), while those working for national hospitalist management companies report the least (0.66 weeks).
Paid time off by productivity
If you sort the data by productivity, the more shifts hospitalists work per month, the more vacation they receive. Hospitalists working 10 to 15 shifts a month, for instance, get an average of 1.4 weeks of paid time off, while those working more than 20 shifts get 2.32 weeks of paid time off. But paradoxically, hospitalists who see more patients per shift tend to receive less paid time off.
Finally, when the data are sorted by payment arrangement, physicians paid on pure productivity get only half as much paid time off (0.94 weeks) as salaried colleagues (1.86 weeks).
Want more data about hospitalist pay, work hours and more? Visit www.todayshospitalist.com and look for the "Survey Results" button on the left side of the page.
