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Your compensation and our anniversary

November 2018

Welcome to this month’s issue, which marks the 15th anniversary of Today’s Hospitalist magazine. Fifteen years may not seem like a long time, but it represents a pretty good chunk of the existence of hospital medicine. That gives us a unique perspective into the specialty, one that is on display in these pages.

Our cover story features data from our latest Compensation & Career Survey, now in its 11th year. Our survey found that the average compensation for full-time hospitalists treating adults is $290,089, an increase of 2.4% over last year. That is pretty healthy in an environment in which some specialties are seeing their pay stagnate or even shrink a bit.

As we’ve noted countless times, average compensation numbers are a good starting point but somewhat useless without contextual data. To really make sense of compensation figures, you need to know how many shifts hospitalists are working and how many patients they see. We’ll give you that perspective in future issues, or you can view more survey results now on our Web site.

In this issue, we focus on incentives and bonuses in hospitalist pay. As health care moves from paying for volume to paying for value, incentives and bonuses will likely play a bigger role in your paycheck.

And here’s some quick historical context we can offer: In 2008, the first year we conducted our survey, average hospitalist compensation came in just under $200,000. Over the last 11 years, hospitalists’ average compensation has jumped $90,000, an increase of 45%. That—as well as the incentives and bonuses that hospitalists are offered—is a testament to how indispensable the specialty has proved to be.

Edward Doyle
Editor & Publisher
edoyle@todayshospitalist.com

Published in the November 2018 issue of Today’s Hospitalist
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