LOOK AT DATA from the Today’s Hospitalist Compensation & Career Survey, and you’ll see that how many shifts hospitalists work each month plays a big role in how much they’re paid.
Hospitalists working fewer than 14 shifts a month, for example, reported earning an average of just under $320,000. That number of shifts is lower than the average of 14.8 shifts per month that our survey found for hospitalists who treat adults, and that compensation is lower than the $348,000 mean compensation reported in our survey for all adult hospitalists.
Pay goes up quickly with additional monthly shifts. Hospitalists clocking 14 to 16 shifts a month, for example, earn an average of $346,094. That’s $26,000—or 8%—more for working an extra two monthly shifts.
Go to the other end of the range, and hospitalists working 20-plus shifts a month reported a mean income of nearly $398,000. That $78,000 gap equals a nearly 25% difference, although it does come with a significantly higher workload.
The amount of coverage hospitalists take on isn’t the only factor driving hospitalist compensation. That can be seen by looking at pay trends by geographic region.
While hospitalists in three regions—the Midwest, the South and the Southwest—all report working an average of 15 shifts a month, their pay is all over the place. While hospitalists in the Midwest report a mean comp of $383,995 for working 15 shifts a month, hospitalists in the Southwest report an average pay of $335,093 for working the same shift number.
Clearly, other factors affecting compensation outweigh the impact of shifts worked per month.
Here are more data from our Compensation & Career Survey showing trends in how many shifts hospitalists work and how much they’re paid:
Average shifts and pay: academic vs. nonacademic hospitalists
Academic: 14.8 shifts/$303,624
Nonacademic: 14.9 shifts/$355,307
Average shifts and pay: type of employer
Hospital/hospital corporation: 14.7 shifts/$349,280
Local hospitalist group: 15.7 shifts/$380,431
Multispecialty/primary care: 16.2 shifts/$380,088
National hospitalist mgmt. company: 14.8 shifts/$347,386
University/medical school: 13.7 shifts/$286,143
Average shifts and pay: geographic region
Northeast: 14.8 shifts/$321,903
South: 15 shifts/$352,114
Midwest: 15 shifts/$383,995
Mountain: 14.7 shifts/$343,319
Southwest: 15 shifts/$335,093
RELATED CONTENT:
Shift work isn’t the only factor to influence hospitalist compensation: One might think experience impacts pay positively, but data show the difference in pay isn’t large. Read more here.
For more data on how physician compensation is affected by bonuses, patient encounters, experience and location, see our overview on hospitalist pay.
