Hospitalist career satisfaction: Who’s the most—and the least—satisfied?

Key takeaways:

In this article, we look at hospitalist career satisfaction by the following:

• Hospital size, patient volume and shift length.
• Employer type.
• Geographic region.

WHEN IT COMES TO CAREER SATISFACTION, who are the specialty’s most fulfilled physicians?

Overall, data from the 2024 Today’s Hospitalist Compensation & Career Survey paint a fairly positive picture. Satisfaction rates were high among hospitalists—88% of adult hospitalists said they’re somewhat satisfied, very satisfied or satisfied—and those rates hold steady for many hospitalist groups.

Among pediatric hospitalists, for example, the number reportibng being satisfied is even higher: 92.3%. Academic hospitalists also reported slightly higher levels of career satisfaction—89.3%—while nonacademic hospitalists came in with slightly lower levels at 85.1%. Satisfaction levels by gender showed a similar spread, with 88.9% of male hospitalists saying they’re satisfied compared to 85.9% of female hospitalists.

Bigger differences in career satisfaction enter the picture when you look at data on hospitalists by employer type and region. Our data also show that hospitalist career satisfaction is higher in smaller hospitals and among hospitalists who see fewer patients and work fewer shifts.

Here’s a look at some of the differences in rates of hospitalist career satisfaction.

Is smaller better (for career satisfaction)?

One trend that popped out in our survey: Hospitalists in smaller, lower-volume settings reported higher levels of satisfaction. Consider the following:

• Satisfaction by hospital size: Among hospitalists in hospitals with under 100 beds, 95.7% said they were satisfied. In hospitals with 250-500 beds, by comparison, that number was 85.7%, a full 10% lower.

A higher percentage of hospitalists working at hospitals with fewer than 100 beds said they were very satisfied (37.1%) compared to hospitalists in hospitals with 250-500 beds: 24.2%.

• Satisfaction by patient volume. Among hospitalists reporting 15-17 patient encounters per shift, 90.1% are satisfied. Of that group, 27.8% reported being very satisfied.

Of hospitalists with 18-20 patient encounters per shift, by contrast, 80.1% were satisfied. The number of hospitalists in that group who reported being very satisfied dropped to 23.1%.

• Satisfaction by shift length. Hospitalist career satisfaction showed a gradual decline as shifts grew longer. For hospitalists with shifts of eight to nine hours, for example, a whopping 96% said they were satisfied. For those with 10-11 hour shifts, that number dropped sharply, with 88.4% saying they’re satisfied. The percentage fell again for hospitalists working 12-hour shifts (86.7%), and it dropped even more steeply for those working shifts longer than 12-hours (82.8%).

Interested in learning more on how patient volume affects satisfaction? Read How does patient encounters per shift affect hospitalist pay (and satisfaction)?.

Hospitalist career satisfaction by: 

• Employer type: Our data show that the least satisfied hospitalists work for national hospitalist management companies, although a substantial majority (79%) still reported being satisfied. That reflects a trend we’ve seen in our surveys over the years.

The most satisfied hospitalists work for local groups, with 92.8% saying they’re satisfied. That’s another trend that we’ve seen.

As for who is very satisfied, hospitalists working in multispecialty/primary care practices also had a significantly higher number of very satisfied: 35.1%. Most other employer types had rates of very satisfied responses in the mid-20% range.

Here’s a full list of “satisfied” levels by employer type:

Hospital/hospital corporation: 88.67%

Local hospitalist group: 92.8%

Multispecialty/primary care practices: 89.2%

National hospitalist mgmt. company: 79%

University/medical school: 86.1% 

• Geography: The percentage of hospitalists who said they were very satisfied was highest in the Southwest (41.8%) and lowest in the Midwest (24.2%). But the Southwest also had the highest percentage of hospitalists who said they were very unsatisfied: 14.5%.

Here’s a full list of “satisfied” levels by region:

Northeast: 89.6%

South: 85.7%

Midwest: 91.6%

Mountain: 90.9%

Southwest: 85.7%

Pacific: 85.70

For more data on how physician compensation is affected by bonuses, experience, shift work and location, check out our overview on hospitalist pay.