WHEN IT COMES to covering weekends, most hospitalist groups rely on one of two solutions.
According to data from our most recent annual survey, the most common form of weekend coverage among adult hospitalists is seven-on/seven-off scheduling. Our data found that just over two-thirds of groups (67.8%) use seven-on/seven-off to cover weekends.
The other popular approach? Survey results indicated that just over one-third of adult hospitalist groups (35.6%) rotated physicians to cover weekends.
When we asked about other weekend-coverage strategies—a list that included using NPs/PAs, on-call physicians and residents—none was used by more than 10% of groups, according to survey respondents. (Weekend coverage figures add up to more than 100% because we asked respondents to click “all that apply.”)
How does your hospitalist group cover weekends?
• Work 7-on/7-off: 67.8%
• Docs rotate: 35.6%
• NPs/PAs: 6.6%
• “Weekendists”: 5.5%
• On-call docs: 4.2%
• Residents: 3.8%
• Telemedicine: 0.5%
• Other: 6.4%
Weekend coverage looked different for pediatric hospitalists, where only 14% reported working seven-on/seven-off. A huge percentage of pediatric hospitalist groups—83.7%—rotate weekend coverage among their physicians.
Scheduling differences by employer, geography
How groups choose to cover weekends also sheds light on scheduling differences across different hospitalist employers.
Among adult hospitalist groups employed by hospitals and hospital corporations, for example, seven-on/seven-off scheduling was used slightly less often than in other types of groups. Just over half of groups (52.9%) at hospitals/hospital corporations use seven-on/seven-off to cover weekends, compared to 67.8% of adult hospitalist groups as a whole.
Meanwhile, groups in universities and medical schools are much more likely to rotate hospitalists to cover weekends. Our survey found that 44.2% of those groups rotate physician coverage compared to 35.6% of all hospitalist groups.
Not surprisingly, hospitalist groups at universities/medical schools are much more likely to cover weekends with residents. Our data found that 13.5% of those groups used physicians-in-training for weekend coverage compared to 3.8% of all adult hospitalist groups.
Finally, hospitalist group coverage for weekends differs by geography. A big percentage (81%) of hospitalist groups in the South, for instance, rely on seven-on/seven-off for weekend shifts, while only 22% rotate physician coverage.
But in the Mountain region, 41.2% of groups use seven-on/seven-off to cover weekends while 55.9% rotate physicians.
VIEW DATA ON HOSPITALIST PAY from both the 2024 and the 2023 Today’s Hospitalist Compensation & Career Surveys. Our annual surveys examine how hospitalist compensation is affected by factors such as the type of patients hospitalists treat, the number of shifts they work, the number of patients they see per shift and more.
