Hospitalist Lifestyle

[GYN DOC]

Can any women give their opinion on the life of a hospitalist and the average salary. Is it conducive to having a family or is the amount of hrs you work on the 7 days off/7 days on schedule a bad trade off. How's call - do you take call during your seven days off? Have to do 24 hr call - in house? etc. Other people have open threads on hospitalist but i'm looking for the female perspective.

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[Annette]

Schedules varies dramatically. There are some hospitalist groups that work 5 days with weekends off. Some let docs work part time. There are several women in my group that have children and do well with the schedule. My schedule is 7 days on (8 to 5), 7 off, with one night call a month (14 hours)

 

[Is It Lupus?]

Hey guys, I'm becoming very interested in going into hospitalist medicine after residency. Can I ask, what salary do hospitalists typically start at right out of residency? I've heard they're doing really well, especially in places where the market is not saturated with doctors. For example, one of my friends who is months from graduating an IM residency at a small community hospital has gotten offers as high as $200K in the Boston area, while his offers are only around $125K in Connecticut. Thoughts?

 

[gwen]

to the OP - great question. i'm a full time female hospitalist with no kids right now. i work 14 twelve hour shifts a month (7 days, 7 nights). but they are not all in a row...no more than 4 days in a row and no more than 3 nights in a row. so i often have 3-4 day breaks here and there (sometimes more, sometimes less). i'm hoping to take some time off after having a kid and then going part time (not sure how that will work out).

 

[Richard Cypher]

Do people tend to burn out on the 7 on 7 off schedule? Does it work like a shift in that when 7pm rolls around, thats it - you are off the clock? What kind of salary can one expect for that. Are there other variations on this schedule such as a 8-5 m-f (i doubt it). Also how is it to work as a hospitalist for the VA (money and schedule-wise)? I am trying to figure out the best options a residency in IM can give me with a balance between schedule and compensation.

 

[pedronavaja2005]

Do people tend to burn out on the 7 on 7 off schedule? Does it work like a shift in that when 7pm rolls around, thats it - you are off the clock? What kind of salary can one expect for that. Are there other variations on this schedule such as a 8-5 m-f (i doubt it). Also how is it to work as a hospitalist for the VA (money and schedule-wise)? I am trying to figure out the best options a residency in IM can give me with a balance between schedule and compensation.

.

I currently work as a Hospitalist in a large academic hospital and my schedule is basically m-f days only with 7-8 weekend daytime calls (crosscoverage). You get vacation and time off to pursue academic activities and overall you do 36-44 weeks of clinical work depending on whether you are a career hospitalist or are in transition (a.k.a fellowship bound). We have a dedicated group of night and weekend hospitalists so we never have to do night calls (unless you decide to take moonlightling shifts) and the number of weekends are limited (7-8 for the entire year).
There are women on our group (5 out of 20 or so) and 3 of them have children/families.
The salaries for academic centers in large cities are generally much lower than community hospitals in smaller towns but you might have more flexibility and free time/weekends off if you work for an academic type hospital. Also, the 7on/7off sounds great but if you think about it you are basically on every other weekend for the rest of the year.

So for a career day-hospitalist at my institution this is a breakdown of the schedule:

36 weeks of clinical work (daytime only)- rotations with a mix of housestaff teams, direct care with NPs and medical consults with housestaff...you are doing one rotation at the time and don't do a combination of the above).

7-8 weekend calls you pick at the beginning of the academic year. One of those weekends has to be a three day weekend. You basically cross-cover patients and write admission notes for those who were admitted by Pas, NPs or housestaff moonligters. If the patient was admitted by a night hospitalist you don't have to write an admission note. You never have to do a full admission because it was already done by the night person when you come in during the day.
The rest of your weekends are off.

4 weeks of vacation

12 weeks of "research" time where you pursue all sorts of academic activities, projects for quality and such. You also precept a housestaff-run preop clinic during this time and may need to be called for sick coverage.

The higher salaries at some hospitals do not come without the hard work and often high patient load which makes burnout very common pretty early during the course.

 

[Richard Cypher]

.

I currently work as a Hospitalist in a large academic hospital and my schedule is basically m-f days only with 7-8 weekend daytime calls (crosscoverage). You get vacation and time off to pursue academic activities and overall you do 36-44 weeks of clinical work depending on whether you are a career hospitalist or are in transition (a.k.a fellowship bound). We have a dedicated group of night and weekend hospitalists so we never have to do night calls (unless you decide to take moonlightling shifts) and the number of weekends are limited (7-8 for the entire year).
There are women on our group (5 out of 20 or so) and 3 of them have children/families.
The salaries for academic centers in large cities are generally much lower than community hospitals in smaller towns but you might have more flexibility and free time/weekends off if you work for an academic type hospital. Also, the 7on/7off sounds great but if you think about it you are basically on every other weekend for the rest of the year.

So for a career day-hospitalist at my institution this is a breakdown of the schedule:

36 weeks of clinical work (daytime only)- rotations with a mix of housestaff teams, direct care with NPs and medical consults with housestaff...you are doing one rotation at the time and don't do a combination of the above).

7-8 weekend calls you pick at the beginning of the academic year. One of those weekends has to be a three day weekend. You basically cross-cover patients and write admission notes for those who were admitted by Pas, NPs or housestaff moonligters. If the patient was admitted by a night hospitalist you don't have to write an admission note. You never have to do a full admission because it was already done by the night person when you come in during the day.
The rest of your weekends are off.

4 weeks of vacation

12 weeks of "research" time where you pursue all sorts of academic activities, projects for quality and such. You also precept a housestaff-run preop clinic during this time and may need to be called for sick coverage.

The higher salaries at some hospitals do not come without the hard work and often high patient load which makes burnout very common pretty early during the course.

What is the average salary at one of the academic places and what are the hours of a typical day? Is the scenario you described typical? How difficult is it to obtain these positions? And does anyone know about positions at the VA? Thanks.

 

[jsms]

http://todayshospitalist.com/index.php?b=staffing_and_scheduling

 

[DocDanny]

I think that being a hospitalist is the career for me. I know I want to do IM, but all the fellowships seem to limit your variety. I plan to practice in the Midwest (Ohio) to be near family. How realistic is it to find a job as a hospitalist that makes the following?

* I want to work 1 week on, 1 week off. ~60 hours a week. A few weekend calls.
* I want to work just 1 hospital, no travelling.
* I want to teach residents and students.
* I want to precept a clinic with residents.
* I want to be able to moonlight during my off week. Like at an ER or ICU.
* I want to make about 150-200k a year.

Does this seem possible?

 

[gutonc]

I think that being a hospitalist is the career for me. I know I want to do IM, but all the fellowships seem to limit your variety. I plan to practice in the Midwest (Ohio) to be near family. How realistic is it to find a job as a hospitalist that makes the following?

* I want to work 1 week on, 1 week off. ~60 hours a week. A few weekend calls.
* I want to work just 1 hospital, no travelling.
* I want to teach residents and students.
* I want to precept a clinic with residents.
* I want to be able to moonlight during my off week. Like at an ER or ICU.
* I want to make about 150-200k a year.

Does this seem possible?

With the exception of the hours (unless you're averaging over the course of 7 on/7 off...more like 70-100 hrs/wk in your scenario) and moonlighting in an ED or ICU (you could moonlight in another hospitalist gig), yes, it's possible and is basically a description of 90% of hospitalist positions.

 

[DulQa]

.

I currently work as a Hospitalist in a large academic hospital and my schedule is basically m-f days only with 7-8 weekend daytime calls (crosscoverage). You get vacation and time off to pursue academic activities and overall you do 36-44 weeks of clinical work depending on whether you are a career hospitalist or are in transition (a.k.a fellowship bound). We have a dedicated group of night and weekend hospitalists so we never have to do night calls (unless you decide to take moonlightling shifts) and the number of weekends are limited (7-8 for the entire year).
There are women on our group (5 out of 20 or so) and 3 of them have children/families.
The salaries for academic centers in large cities are generally much lower than community hospitals in smaller towns but you might have more flexibility and free time/weekends off if you work for an academic type hospital. Also, the 7on/7off sounds great but if you think about it you are basically on every other weekend for the rest of the year.

So for a career day-hospitalist at my institution this is a breakdown of the schedule:

36 weeks of clinical work (daytime only)- rotations with a mix of housestaff teams, direct care with NPs and medical consults with housestaff...you are doing one rotation at the time and don't do a combination of the above).

7-8 weekend calls you pick at the beginning of the academic year. One of those weekends has to be a three day weekend. You basically cross-cover patients and write admission notes for those who were admitted by Pas, NPs or housestaff moonligters. If the patient was admitted by a night hospitalist you don't have to write an admission note. You never have to do a full admission because it was already done by the night person when you come in during the day.
The rest of your weekends are off.

4 weeks of vacation

12 weeks of "research" time where you pursue all sorts of academic activities, projects for quality and such. You also precept a housestaff-run preop clinic during this time and may need to be called for sick coverage.

The higher salaries at some hospitals do not come without the hard work and often high patient load which makes burnout very common pretty early during the course.

Not asking about the salary but would you mind telling me what hospital is this?

 

[jacksparrow82]

Here's my job description for comparison:

I work as a hospitalist in a large community hospital in the midwest (ohio). Our schedule basically requires us to work 17-18 days per month. Usually we work blocks of 5-6 days in a row. We are on call the first day from 12-8 taking patients from the ER and hospital consults. The other days are mostly rounding days, requiring us to be there from roughly 8 or 9 in the morning until 4 or 5 in the afternoon seeing patients. We usually have 1 weekend a month where our block occurs from say a thursday through tuesday. Typical patient load is 10-15/day. No nights. We are lucky to have 2 main nocturnists and 1 or 2 others in the group who like to fill in when they can't work. So, nights are covered completely for the rest of us who don't like to work nights

Our base salary is 183K and there are bonuses for productivity and quality measures. Most people in the group average around 215/year. We have some making as high as 240, it really depends on how good you are at billing appropriately, following quality measures and how many patients you happen to see.

We also share a teaching service working with the residents in the hospital usually 2 weeks at a time a couple of times per year.

I'm fresh out of residency and I can tell you that I'm LOVING this job/lifestyle so far!

 

[AquaFortis]

This is probably a dumb question, but with the 7 on/7 off schedule, how do weekends work? Do you get up and go do a 12 hour shift in house just like you would during the week? If that's the case, while you do have half the year off, you have to work every other weekend (which kind of sucks). Or do you field calls from home on the weekends, or some other mixture? Just a curious medical student.

 

[ussdfiant]

This is probably a dumb question, but with the 7 on/7 off schedule, how do weekends work? Do you get up and go do a 12 hour shift in house just like you would during the week? If that's the case, while you do have half the year off, you have to work every other weekend (which kind of sucks). Or do you field calls from home on the weekends, or some other mixture? Just a curious medical student.

Out of the mouths of babes. Yes you have found one of the more undesirable aspects of 7 on/7 off: working every other weekend. In my practice we work every 3rd weekend, but the weekends are no different than the rest of the week (actually worse because we have less docs and no midlevels). Take admissions, consults, round on pts, repeat.

 

[Lewy]

To the OP, I know of women who split a hospitalist position. This allows them to maintain their skills but only work 7 days per month while they are raising young kids. It seems like a really great option.