Practice Data on Working Hours, Patient Visits and Income
by Patrick C. Alguire, MD, FACP
Director, Education and Career Development, ACP
Practice data is helpful when making decisions about job opportunities and evaluating employment contracts. It is often difficult for a new physician to determine what the norm is for parameters such as work time, patient load, and compensation. Luckily, those statistics are available and can be used as a rough guide for contract negotiations. It is important to remember, however, that the statistics are not specific for physicians just starting their first job, but represent a sample of physicians in all stages of their careers. Nevertheless, this information may prevent you from making ill-informed decisions. The source for the information is Gonzalaz ML, Zhang P.,eds. Physician Marketplace Statistics 1997/1998. American Medical Association, Chicago, 1998. This resource book, although expensive at over $300 per copy, contains a staggering amount of very detailed, useful information.
The information in the resource is divided by specialty type, practice type, and region of country. What will be summarized here is information for all physicians, all internal medicine physicians, general internal medicine physicians, gastroenterologists, and cardiologists. Data for other internal medicine subspecialties are not available.
Specialty |
Median Weeks of Practice (25th -75th percentile) |
Median Hours of Patient Care Per Week (25th -75th percentile) |
Median Patient Visits Per Week (25th -75th percentile) |
Median Net Income (x 1000) After Expenses, Before Taxes (25th -75th percentile) |
All physicians |
48 (46-49) |
52 (42-62) |
102 (70-140) |
166 (120-240) |
All Internal Medicine |
48 (47-49) |
55 (44-65) |
100 (70-135) |
150 (116-220) |
General Internal Medicine |
48 (47-50) |
54 (42-64) |
105 (76-141) |
140 (106-188) |
Cardiology |
48 (46-49) |
60 (50-74) |
94 (60-130) |
255 (150-400) |
Gastroenterology |
48 947-49) |
60 (52-59) |
73 (55-106) |
187 (150-300) |
The median hours of patient care activities per week tend to increase with practices of up to three physicians in a group, then it decreases. For example, the median hours of patient care in a solo practice is 53; for a two or three member group, 57; four to eight member group, 55; over eight members, 56. As might be expected, the number of patients seen per week correlates well with the number of hours of patient care activity per week and increases as the size of the group increases.
Median net income for all physicians tends to vary with geographic location (see map). The southeast central zone of the U.S. (Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky) has the highest median net income at $195,000, followed by northwest central (Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas) at $180,000. Northeast central and Southwest central median net incomes (Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas) are tied at $171,000. The New England region (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont) and Pacific regions (California, Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington) have the lowest median incomes at $145,000 and $154,000 respectively.
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