HOW LONG IS AN average hospitalist’s shift? Data from the 2022 Today’s HospItalist Compensation & Career Survey found that 12-hour shifts are still the hospitalist shift norm for close to 60% of those responding. But there are differences based on factors like group size and geography.
To start, the average shift length for all adult hospitalists is 11.6 hours. Pediatric hospitalists, by comparison, report working a mean of 12.9-hour shifts.
Among adult hospitalists, there’s also a very minor difference between academic hospitalists (11.7 hours) compared to nonacademic hospitalists (11.5 hours). And differences emerge by geographic region, with hospitalists in the Pacific region working longer shifts (12.3 hours) while those in the Northeast work shorter ones (11.3 hours).
Our data also show some differences in shift lengths for hospitalists by the size of group and hospital where they work.
In hospitals under 100 beds, for example, hospitalists’ average shifts are 12.3 hours long. Shift lengths go down at bigger hospitals, with hospitalists at facilities that have over 500 beds averaging 11.4 hours per shift.
Finally, hospitalists working in smaller groups tend to work longer days. In groups with between one and four hospitalists, for example, shifts average 13.1 hours. In groups with 21 to 30 hospitalists, by comparison, shifts average 11.2 hours.
For updated survey data, see results from Today’s Hospitalist’s 2023 Compensation and Career Survey.
