Hospitalists with lower base salaries outperformed hospitalists with higher base salaries, a Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) and Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) survey shows.
Adult hospitalists who received 50% or less of their compensation as fixed base salary reported the highest median work relative value units (RVUs) at 5,407, the MGMA and SHM says. The study showed other hospitalists who:
- Had 51% to 70% of their compensation as a base salary performed 4,591 work RVUs
- Had 71% to 90% of their compensation as a base salary performed 3,859 work RVUs
- Had 91% to 100% of their compensation as a base salary performed 3,571 work RVUs
"This new data will prove tremendously helpful to hospitalists and healthcare executives alike," said William "Tex" Landis, MD, chair of SHM's practice analysis committee. "While it is important to keep in mind that [work RVUs] cannot measure every work effort, this survey data will definitely support better decisions about how hospitalist practices are resourced, and it will ultimately promote delivering the best possible care to hospitalized patients across the country."
The report further states family practice hospitalists received more than their counterparts. The median compensation for a family practice hospitalist was $218,066, while internal medicine hospitalists reported median compensation of $215,000 and pediatric hospitalists reported compensation of $160,038.