Hospitalist physicians see 8% pay increase in 2011. Detailed survey results now online.

Oct. 31, 2011 - PRLog -- Despite a slow economy and uncertainty about the future of health care reimbursements, hospitalists continue to see healthy increases in their compensation.

Data from the fourth annual Today’s Hospitalist Compensation & Career Survey show that salaries for hospitalists grew by more than 8% from 2010 to 2011, reaching a mean of just over $222,000. Adult hospitalists reported a mean income of just over $227,000 (a gain of 6% over the previous year), while pediatric hospitalists reported a mean compensation of $190,000 (a gain of 12% over the previous year).

Those gains in compensation came with fairly small increases in productivity, as measured in terms of patient encounters per shift. Adult hospitalists, for example, reported that they saw 16.3 patients per shift, a jump of about 3% from 2010 levels.

Those data are considered good news by many experts, some of whom had expected to see pressure on hospitalists to see more patients to help make up for budget shortfalls.

“Our survey shows that hospital medicine is thriving despite what could be viewed as a harsh economic climate for health care,” said Edward Doyle, Editor and Publisher of Today’s Hospitalist magazine. “Hospitals are feeling pressured financially, but they continue to reward hospitalists individually. That speaks volumes about the key role that hospitalists play in the facilities where they work.”

The Today’s Hospitalist survey asked more than 50 questions about a broad range of issues related to hospital medicine, from workload to work schedules, incentives and attitudes. The survey found that the average age of hospitalists is 42, that about one-third are female, and that about 25% plan to remain in the specialty for less than five years.

More than 800 hospitalists responded to the survey in May and June of this year. Results from the survey were published in a special issue of Today’s Hospitalist magazine published in mid-October. Other data from the survey will be covered in issues of the magazine throughout the year.

More than 100 charts from the survey have been published online at http://www.todayshospitalist.com/?pr=prlog . These charts break down data from the survey by type of hospitalist (adult vs. pediatric patients), type of employer (hospital vs. private group), geographic location, and more.

Media representatives can access the data by visiting the site and entering preview2011 as the user ID and results as the password.

Today’s Hospitalist reaches more than 25,000 hospitalists every month. The magazine features articles on clinical topics and business trends and career issues for hospitalists.

For more information, contact Edward Doyle at edoyle@todayshospitalist.com.