HOW BIG IS AN average hospitalist group? While the biggest groups have over 50 physicians and nonphysicians, there’s a lot of variation across the country and throughout different types of practices.
According to data from the 2022 Today’s Hospitalist Compensation & Career Survey, U.S. adult hospitalist groups on average have 26.6 FTE physicians and 9.4 FTE NPs/PAs. Pediatric hospitalist groups, by comparison, have an average of 14.9 FTE physicians and 4.0 FTE nonphysician clinicians.
The head count across these groups varies significantly based on factors like employer type and geography.
Universities and medical schools, for example, have the largest average group size with a mean of 39.7 FTE physicians and 14.9 FTE nonphysician clinicians. National hospitalist management companies, by comparison, report the smallest group size with a mean of 17.6 FTE physicians and 6.7 FTE advanced practice providers.
By region, hospitalist groups in the Pacific have the largest number of physicians at 35.7 and nonphysician clinicians at 8.1. Hospitalist groups in the Southwest, by comparison, report the smallest number of physicians at 20.8 and 4.1 NPs/PAs.
One factor that probably affects the size of hospitalist groups is how big the hospitals are where they work. Our data showed that on average, hospitals where respondents work have an average of 340 beds.
For updated survey data, see results from Today’s Hospitalist’s 2023 Compensation and Career Survey.
