Home Poll How many of your hospital’s patients do you admit?

How many of your hospital’s patients do you admit?

November 2011

Published in the November 2011 issue of Today’s Hospitalist

EVERYONE KNOWS that hospitalists are integral to the hospitals where they work, but just how important are they? One proxy measure is how many of a hospital’s patients they admit and follow. When we asked those questions on the 2011 Today’s Hospitalist Compensation & Career Survey, respondents told us that just over 70% of the patients in their facilities were being admitted and followed by hospitalists. While that percentage was fairly consistent across categories like employment models, some interesting differences did emerge. Here’s a look at the data.

Percentage of inpatients admitted by hospitalists
A slightly higher percentage of inpatients is admitted by pediatric hospitalists (74%) than adult hospitalists (70%).

Minor differences also emerge when the data are sorted by the type of employer hospitalists work for. Hospitalists tend to admit the highest percentage of their hospital’s patients when they work for local hospitalist groups (76%). Not surprisingly, those numbers are lowest among hospitalists working at universities/medical schools (62%) and at teaching hospitals (66%).

Shift type and geography
Examine the data by the type of shift that hospitalists work, and more differences emerge. Hospitalists admit the highest percentage of inpatients when they work shifts (71%). They care for the lowest percentage when they work 9-5 and take beeper call (65%).

Geography also plays a role in the percentage of inpatients that hospitalists admit. Hospitalists in the Mountain states admit more of their hospitals’ patients (close to 84%), while their colleagues in the Pacific states come in at a close second (77%). Hospitalists in the Midwestern states admit fewer of their hospitals’ patients (65%).

Effect on income
Perhaps most interestingly, hospitalists who work at hospitals where they admit and follow a higher percentage of patients tend to make significantly more money. Hospitalists earning between $100,000 and $149,000, for example, admitted just under 70% of their hospital’s patients. Hospitalists earning $300,000 or more, by comparison, admitted nearly 76%.

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Want more data about hospitalist pay, work hours and more? Go check out our latest survey results online at the top of the page.