What is a normal hospitalist schedule?

[FIREshrink]

Was talking with a hospitalist today who told me he works 173 12 hour shifts per year. That comes out to 2076 hours per year. Does not get any additional PTO.

A M-F 8-5 employee without PTO would work 40*52=2080 per year. But 8-5 docs get PTO, holidays, vacation, and/or sick days. Typically 4-8 weeks, let's assume a total of 6 weeks or 240 hours. So they actually work closer to 2080-240 = 1840 hours.

How is it considered equitable as a full time employee that a hospitalist works the equivalent of a full time doctor but with zero paid time off?

In my brief research online approximately half of all hospitalists do not get PTO.

[pierre]

I worked a 7on/7off job years ago (not as a physician) and didn’t accrue vacation time because we “had every other week off”, while others in the department working 4 10s did accrue vacation. Kinda weird. We were paid hourly.

[pierre]

Are most hospitalists paid on production? In which case, PTO is not actually PTO.

[FIREshrink]

Most hospitalists are salaried/by shift I think.

[IMinMS]

A lot of hospitalists have significant RVU bonuses/significant production element. Also, most desirable hospitalist jobs aren’t in-house for all 12 hours as folks will either cover/alternate late days so in house is closer to 75 hours per work week. Obviously still a lot of hours though, although I would wager there’s quite a bit more work creep beyond the 8-5, 40 hr work week that pushes it closer to 45-50 hrs whereas there is essentially zero work creep outside of shift hours in hospital medicine.