Hospitalist vs. Regular Doctors

[Biyanka]

<p>What is the difference in terms of hours worked and salary? How difficult is it to get a job as a hospitalist?</p>

[Bigredmed]

<p>Hospitalists will be doing shift work, very similar to the way doctors in the Emergency Department do. At some places that may be as few as three 12-hour shifts per week, plus any additional time spent transferring care to the next shift, as well as finishing tasks on those patients who are admitted to your service 10 minutes before your shift is over. </p>

<p>Hospitalists will not be “on-call” in the traditional sense because they have no real patients of their own. But on the other hand, a hospitalist’s job/time spent is going to most closely resemble what it’s like when you’re on-call - responding to acute changes, answering pages to write orders for pain pills or anti-nausea meds etc.</p>

<p>You also have to realize that shift work is shift work. By that I mean, there are no holidays. If you normally work on tuesdays, and Christmas falls on a Tuesday, then you’re going to be at work on Christmas Day (and New Year’s for that matter)</p>

<p>As for availability…like most things in medicine, I feel pretty confident in saying there’s a significant regional bias, despite the fact that I have no real data. Certainly limited to bigger cities, and probably more prevalent in those cities with academic medical centers simply b/c of the number of physicians produced who will ultimately remain in-town after their training.</p>

[my_0.02]

<p>Hospitalists admit patients to the hospital for internists who are in the office (or at night) and consult on internist or family medicince docs patients. Hospitalists are most often employed by hospitals, with the hospital receiving the third party compensation generated by the hospitalist’s activities.</p>

<p>Most hospitalists do not have clinic hours or maintain an office or office practice.</p>

<p>Hospitalist jobs are available in all size hospitals in all areas of the country. In many community hospitals, being able to stay in the office seeing patients can tip the balance of financial survival for an internist.</p>

<p>See the society of hospital medicine definition:

The term ‘hospitalist’ refers to physicians whose practice emphasizes providing care for hospitalized patients. The term was coined by Drs. Robert Wachter and Lee Goldman in a New England Journal of Medicine article in August of 1996 (Wachter RM, Goldman L. The emerging role of “hospitalists” in the American health care system. N Engl J Med 1996;335:514-7). While some doctors have emphasized inpatient care for many years, there has been an explosive growth of such doctors since 1994. There are more new jobs available for Hospitalists than in any aspect of internal medicine. Hospital medicine is a significant career path option for those trained in general internal medicine, general pediatrics, family practice, and obstetrics.

<a href=“http://www.hospitalmedicine.org/Content/NavigationMenu/AboutSHM/DefinitionofaHospitalist/Definition_of_a_Hosp.htm[/url]”>http://www.hospitalmedicine.org/Content/NavigationMenu/AboutSHM/DefinitionofaHospitalist/Definition_of_a_Hosp.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Core competencies: <a href=“http://www.hospitalmedicine.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Education/CoreCurriculum/Core_Curriculum.htm[/url]”>http://www.hospitalmedicine.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Education/CoreCurriculum/Core_Curriculum.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>A nice 1998 ACP article describing hospitalist practice (including salary and financial arrangements): <a href=“http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/jan98/growing.htm[/url]”>http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/jan98/growing.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Job listings:
<a href=“http://careercenter.hospitalmedicine.org/search/results/[/url]”>http://careercenter.hospitalmedicine.org/search/results/&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.hospitalistjobs.com/index.html[/url]”>http://www.hospitalistjobs.com/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[Biyanka]

<p>

A nice 1998 ACP article describing hospitalist practice (including salary and financial arrangements): <a href=“http://www.acponline.org/journals/ne...98/growing.htm[/url]”>http://www.acponline.org/journals/ne...98/growing.htm&lt;/a&gt;

</p>

<p>Thanks a lot! That had everything I needed to know.</p>