HOW DOES PATIENT VOLUME affect hospitalist pay and satisfaction? Data from the Today’s Hospitalist Compensation & Career Survey show that in terms of compensation, more patient encounters per shift equals significantly more pay. But data also show that high-volume hospitalists report significantly lower levels of career satisfaction.
According to our data, adult hospitalists with 15-17 encounters per shift make an average of just over $340,000 a year. That figure is for all hospitalists who treat adults and includes income from working extra shifts.
In the higher range of patient encounters, hospitalists who deal with 18-20 patients per shift reported just over $359,000. That’s $18,000 more—or 6% higher—than physicians with 15-17 patient encounters per shift.
The highest volume hospitalists, those who work with more than 20 patients per shift, earned the most: just over $370,000 a year. That small group, which accounts for only 13% of survey respondents, earned about 9% more than hospitalists in the 15-17 encounter per shift range.
What’s “average” for pay and patient volume
To put those numbers into perspective, consider two figures that paint a picture of an “average” hospitalist.
First, our 2024 survey found that on average, adult hospitalists have 16.5 patient encounters per shift, a number that has remained fairly steady during our 15-plus years of conducting surveys. Hospitalists reporting 15-17 patient encounters per shift represented 40% of this survey’s respondents, making that the most common level of patient volume in our survey.
(For more data on patient encounters per shift and hospitalists, see coverage from our 2023 survey.)
The second data point: Our survey found that average hospitalist pay for all adult hospitalists in 2024 came in at just over $348,000. (That number includes income hospitalists earned from working extra shifts.)
Taken together, those figures indicate that hospitalists with an “average” number of patient encounters per shift—15-17—are earning slightly below average pay for the specialty, making $340,000 per year instead of $348,000.
Patient volume and pay spikes
Data on how hospitalist pay changed last year aren’t much more encouraging for physicians with average patient volume. While pay spiked up for high-volume hospitalists in our 2024 survey, it fell slightly for average-volume hospitalists.
For hospitalists with 20-plus patient encounters, for example, pay went up $23,505 from 2023-24, or about 7%. For hospitalists who see 18-20 patients per shift, pay also jumped about 7%, or nearly $24,000.
For medium-volume hospitalists, however, 2024 brought bad news. Hospitalists with 10-14 patient encounters per shift, for instance, saw their pay drop from $331,337 in 2023 to $325,525 in 2024. For those with 15-17 patient encounters per shift, pay fell slightly from $340,740 in 2023 to $340,278 in 2024.
Patients per shift and hospitalist job satisfaction
While loading up on patient encounters may pay well, our data show that rates of career dissatisfaction definitely go up with rising patient volume.
Among hospitalists with 10-14 patient encounters per shift, for example, 7% were somewhat or very dissatisfied. Among those with 15-17 encounters per shift, 9% were somewhat or very dissatisfied.
For hospitalists in the 18-20 patient encounter range, dissatisfaction levels skyrocket to nearly 20%. And 17% of those having more than 20 patient encounters per shift were somewhat or dissatisfied.
To put these satisfaction data into perspective, about 12% of all adult hospitalists said they’re somewhat or very dissatisfied with their career. But while hospitalists on the lower end of patient encounters per shift are paid less, they report more career satisfaction than their higher-volume colleagues.
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Discover the subtle differences in salary based on years of experience: Experience pays more, but not as much as you might expect. Read more here.
For more data on how physician compensation is affected by bonuses, experience, shift work and location, check out our overview on hospitalist pay.
