Have you ever heard of a hospitalist? These doctors are quickly becoming the backbone of hospital care teams focused on providing holistic, patient-centered care. The healthcare industry knows that better care from connected, empathetic doctors can significantly improve patient outcomes. It makes sense; we’re all human first. And a big part of our health and willingness to live is tied to our emotional balance. For doctors who enjoy patient-facing activities, a role as a hospitalist can be a fulfilling way to make a big impact.
What is a Hospitalist?
A hospitalist is a type of doctor, similar to your primary care physician, specializing in providing hospitalized patients care. These doctors come from various specialties like pediatrics, internal medicine, or family medicine. The difference is that instead of seeing patients in a traditional clinical setting, they spend their careers in the hospital setting.
While hospitalized patients have a team of doctors assigned to their case, it’s the job of the hospitalist to look after the details of patient care. At the same time, specialists might be focused on specific symptoms or systems like cardiac function or brain function. Therefore, the hospitalist is a core component of the overall patient experience.
Related: The Story Behind OptiMed Hospitalists
How Much Do Hospitalists Make?
Like other medical doctors, hospitalists are reasonably well paid in the United States. A quick survey of salary data aggregators like Glassdoor and Ziprecruiter put the national average salary at about $267K. Salaries can vary based on experience, professional reputation, location, and facility. The low end of the range starts at $120K and goes up to about $330K for the highest reported salaries in this field.
Top 10 Highest Paying Cities for Hospitalists
The highest paying opportunities are available in large cities with a proportionately high living cost and a well-established medical facility. For example, the top-paying city is San Jose, California, and that’s no surprise since California is well-known for its high cost of living and is home to Stanford University. In fact, five out of the top 10 paying cities are located in California. Here’s the full list for the top 10 highest paying cities:
1. San Jose, California – $325,074
2. Oakland, California – $321,377
3. Tanaina, Alaska – $320,059
4. Wasilla, Alaska – $320,055
5. Hayward, California – $314,647
6. Jackson, Wyoming – $314,308
7. Norwalk, Connecticut – $313,481
8. Seattle, Washington – $312,479
9. Vallejo, California – $312,403
10. Concord, California – $311,740
Related: Meet the Team at OptiMed Hospitalists
Hospitalist Lifestyle: A Day in the Life
As more attention shifted towards patient care in the late 1990s, the hospitalist position caught on. Today, it’s a common core component of hospital care teams. The hospitalist is responsible for coordinating the pieces and parts of individual patient care plans. Routine tasks include:
- Collecting patient history and updating records.
- Conducting diagnostic assessments and evaluating patients.
- Providing therapeutic and preventative treatments.
- Coordinating hospital services for additional diagnostic, therapeutic, or consultative care.
- Follow up on individual cases to monitor treatment effectiveness and coordinate changes with care teams.
OptiMed Hospitalists is your team for patient care that cares. Learn more today.
How to Become a Hospitalist
A hospitalist is a doctor first. The road to becoming a hospitalist requires extensive education and training. Aspiring hospitalists begin their education with a four-year undergraduate degree following a pre-med course of study with intensive science and mathematics curriculum. Developing good study habits, rounding out their education with the right extracurriculars, and getting good grades are extremely important in undergraduate study. As they prepare to graduate, students can take the MCATS, a prerequisite for admission to medical school.
Students then spend another four years attending a medical school to complete their doctoral degrees, studying anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, microbiology, pathology, and more. Medical school students also learn the basics of patient care and collecting diagnostic information, but the training is academic in nature. Medical school students will take the USMLE exams to certify them to practice medicine.
From here, the path begins to look a little different depending on specialty and facility. All doctors are required to complete an internship year where they begin treating patients with direct supervision from a licensed attending. Then, they will go on to complete three to eight additional years of specialized training in the form of a residency that provides specific clinical training in their chosen specialty. Doctors can take a final set of board exams during their residency to become board-certified physicians.
Most facilities will require board certification in an appropriate specialty in order to consider doctors for hospitalist positions. But that’s not the only requirement. Facilities hire hospitalists to facilitate patient care, so they’re typically looking for a specific skill set.
Doctor’s with strong interpersonal skills who can communicate with other doctors and patients easily, are well-organized, and are attentive to the emotional needs of patients tend to make good hospitalists. Hospitalists also need excellent problem-solving skills. They are the big-picture problem-solvers that need to look at a patient, identify the problem, and find solutions quickly to provide the right care at the right time.
The Outlook on Hospitalist Careers
Patient care in the healthcare industry is expected to grow. And while many services become remote, the need for personalized and attentive patient care in hospital settings will remain an important component of patient success. As the largest generation in our population reaches their medically-intensive senior years, the demand for hospitalists will continue to grow. These doctors work exclusively in hospital settings with a high level of patient contact. In line with typical hospital scheduling, hospitalists can expect to work a demanding schedule with twelve-hour shifts and multiple overnight or on-call rotations.
The Bottom Line
The hospitalist is the backbone of facility care teams. This position is a medical doctor first, with the primary role of serving as the patient care advocate and coordinator for various departments within the facility. The popularity of this role is increasing as more facilities embrace patient-centered care. Over the past few decades, many facilities have relied on hospitalists to humanize their patient care services and close the gaps left by other departments.
OptiMed Hospitalists is here to provide personalized medicine to manage your relationship-based patient care. Learn more today.