Job characteristics, satisfaction, and burnout across hospitalist practice models

Nearly two-thirds of hospitals in the United States are served by hospitalist physicians. How hospitalist work patterns and job satisfaction vary across various practice models is unknown.

We administered the Hospitalist Worklife Survey to a randomized stratified sample of 3105 potential hospitalists and 662 hospitalist members of 3 multistate hospitalist companies. Details about respondents' hospitalist group characteristics, their work patterns, and satisfaction with 2 global and 11 domain measures were assessed. Factors influencing job satisfaction were also solicited. These factors, job characteristics, job satisfaction, and burnout were compared across predefined practice models.

The adjusted response rate was 25.6%. Among the respondents, 44% were employed by a hospital, 15% by a multispecialty physician group, 14% by a multistate hospitalist group, 14% by a university or medical school, 12% by a local hospitalist group, and 2% by other. Hospitalists of local groups reported more clinical shifts per month, and hospitalists of local and multistate groups reported more billable encounters per shift compared to other practice models. Academic hospitalists reported fewer night shifts, fewer billable encounters per shift, more nonclinical work hours, and lower earnings compared to other practice models. Differences in clinical and nonclinical responsibilities, and differences in factors most important to job satisfaction, were noted across the 5 models. Despite these differences, levels of global job satisfaction and burnout were similar across the practice models.

Work patterns, compensation, and hospitalists' priorities varied significantly across practice models. Overall job satisfaction and burnout were similar across models, despite these differences.