WHEN IT COMES to hospitalist night work, how many shifts a month is average?
According to data from our annual survey, hospitalists who treat adults work an average of 1.7 night shifts a month. Night work among hospitalists is a little more common among pediatric hospitalists, with those physicians reporting an average of 3.7 shifts a month.
But a deeper dive into the data shows that 68.4% of adult hospitalists said they do not cover any no night shifts. On the other end of the spectrum, 12.3% of adult hospitalists reported working five or more weekend shifts a month.
Employer type and hospitalist night work
Sort our data by the type of group hospitalists work for, and you’ll see that hospitalists employed by hospitals and by national hospitalist management companies work slightly more often at night. These hospitalists reported 1.9 night shifts a month.
Hospitalists with local hospitalist groups, by comparison, reported working the lowest number of nights at just 0.5 shifts a month.
Group and hospital size
At the same time, group and hospital size seem to have a bearing on hospitalist night shifts.
Hospitalists at small hospitals (under 100 beds), for example, reported 3.4 shifts a month. Hospitalists at bigger hospitals, by comparison, worked just over one night shift a month.
Hospitalists within the smallest groups (between one and nine hospitalists) also reported working more night shifts a month (2.5). At groups with 31 to 50 hospitalists, by comparison, hospitalists worked at night on average 1.8 times a month.
Lower patient volumes were also linked with more hospitalist night work. Hospitalists with under 10 patient encounters per shift, for example, reported working 5.8 night shifts a month.
Pay and gender
Two final factors that seemed to be related to hospitalist night work were type of compensation and gender.
Hospitalists paid straight salary, for example, reported working 2.5 night shifts a month. By contrast, hospitalists paid a combination of salary and bonuses reported a more manageable 1.3 night shifts a month.
And while male hospitalists reported working 1.8 night shifts a month, their female colleagues reported 1.3 nights a month.
How many night shifts do hospitalists work a month?
None: 68.4%
1-2: 14.5%
3-4: 4.8%
5 or more:12.3%
Mean: 1.7 shifts/month
For data on how physician compensation is affected by bonuses, experience, shift work and location, check out our overview on hospitalist pay.
