Salaries of pediatricians

[leej2004]

I'm new to the boards and interested in a career in pediatrics. I want to know how big of a difference the salary is for someone in a private practice as opposed to someone who has an office in a hospital? How do pediatricians who are just starting out gain a base of clients? How much more or less do specialty doctors like pediatric cardiologists make? Thanks in advance for any replies.

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[HiFi]

in any practice, when starting out you must generate new patients to pay for you being there.

sometimes a practice is so busy, you will simply make life easier for the other docs in the group. eventually though, you should expect thte patient pool to grow.

salaries vary greatly, but most salaries for gen pediatricians are low (compared to other doctors....still about what an airline captain makes, and probably more than an atty or engineer makes )

Salaries in subspecialties can be the same or significantly higher.
Neonatologists in private practice make anywhere from 200 to 300K / yr after the first few years compared to pediatricians making 80-150k/ yr.

Don't know about the other specialties salaries, just my own

 

[Chimera]

How does a PICU attending fare in an academic center?
Thanks.

 

[TulaneKid24]

Originally posted by Chimera
How does a PICU attending fare in an academic center?
Thanks.

From what I gather by talking to attendings at my school is that a PICU attending at the assistant professor level makes about $85k- 105k. Once you advance thru the academic rank levels, expect about $150k. Please note that it will take many, many years to go from Assistant Prof to Associate Prof to Full Professor. I don't think the words peds and academics together = big $$$$.

Good Luck in your career choices.

 

[kungfufishing]

in the private setting I personally know PICU docs who make 300G/year and still get to do plenty of teaching and research on the side, too. not that the cash is THAT important, but I was impressed considering they are only "on" about 10 days out of the month.

 

[edmadison]

I too am interested in Pediatric Critical care. What Tulane and Kungfu have said is what I have heard as well. The big downside of private PICU is that you will not be getting the great ZEBRA cases, they will go to the quatenary referral center. You will be stuck mostly doing trauma, asthma, end stage CF and post-op cards and scoliosis.

Ed

 

[Chimera]

A few quick questions:

Why such a difference in the compensation of a private and academic PICU doc? They are both hospital based and I'm guessing have similar patient populations, with (as stated above) the academian most likely getting the more difficult and challenging zebra cases.

Why does a academic PICU attending get compensated so little for the exent of training (3 gen peds + 3-4 fellowship) and hours in practice? Do they work fewer hours per week than I first suspected?

Finally, when a patient is admitted to the PICU who is then the primary care giver? The service admitting the child or the PICU service ie. who calls the shots in medical management and the like

 

[edmadison]

1) All academic positions pay less than private settings. The whole economics of the system are different. In academics, you get paid less, but always have residents. You also get occasional sabaticals. In terms of hours, I don't know.

2) At my institution, the PICU attendings made it clear that in most cases, they were in charge. This was even with post-op cardio/neuro cases. Take this with a grain of salt, however. It was always a team approach.

Ed

 

[tRmedic21]

Is this for real? My wife is going to be a pediatrician. I realize that this is the low end of the salary pool, but come on.... how can one be expected to pay off $200k in student loans on $85k a year? Wow....

I know it isn't all about the money, don't get me wrong. My wife loves kids and that is her passion, so I won't try to talk her out of Peds at all, but that's seriously bummer news.

I suppose life goes on, eh?

 

[Thewonderer]

Originally posted by tRmedic21
Is this for real? My wife is going to be a pediatrician. I realize that this is the low end of the salary pool, but come on.... how can one be expected to pay off $200k in student loans on $85k a year? Wow....

I know it isn't all about the money, don't get me wrong. My wife loves kids and that is her passion, so I won't try to talk her out of Peds at all, but that's seriously bummer news.

I suppose life goes on, eh?

To make more money as a doc, you can always

1) work more than 50 hours a week. work close to 80 hours that most cardiologists put in every week anyway.

2) move to a part of the country where managed care is less and pay is higher (i.e. avoid california).

You can always make more. It is up to you.