Navigating Shift Work: Strategies for Hospitalists

For a physician, working as a hospitalist is one of the more challenging roles you can take on in your career. Many hospitalists will also tell you that it is one of the most satisfying positions a doctor can hold at a hospital, and it generally pays quite well. Balancing the demands of shift work with your personal life is an important consideration for any medical staff working in a hospital, and that most definitely applies to hospitalists. 

This Open Source MD article takes a closer look at the demands and rewards of working as a hospitalist and provides some insights into navigating shift work.  

How the Hospitalist Field is Evolving in the 2020s and Beyond

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), hospitalist demand is expected to grow by more than 25% by 2030. That trend, combined with the opportunity for diverse work experiences and competitive compensation, makes becoming a hospitalist an attractive proposition.

Lateral moves in medicine have also become more common. It isn’t unusual for physicians to make a mid-career shift to hospitalist work. The high demand for hospitalists means that opportunities abound and the work is lucrative. In the U.S., hospitalists’ average base salary is approximately $250,000 annually, with the most successful physicians clearing over $300,000 with bonuses. 

The Demands and Rewards of Working as a Hospitalist

Hospitalist work is rich with both challenges and rewards. The best way to master the former and capitalize on the latter is to understand the job and incorporate effective strategies. Take proactive steps to create and maintain a better work environment and appropriate work-life balance for yourself. Don’t wait until cracks form over stress, dissatisfaction, and frustrations. 

Some demands of working as a hospitalist include:

• A dynamic work environment with a wide range of medication conditions and patient cases.
• Shift work and irregular hours are par for the course and expected.
• Hospitalists frequently take on leadership roles, driving quality improvement and protocol development. 
• Hospitalists work with critically ill patients, end-of-life decisions, and other emotionally weighty scenarios. 

Among the rewards of hospitalist work, you will find:

• Exceptional opportunities for learning and interacting with different departments and areas of medicine.
• Competitive compensation and ample job opportunities across the country. 
• Scheduling flexibility. The nature of shift work and irregular hours can work in your favor, depending on your lifestyle. 
• High job satisfaction, autonomy, and opportunities to take on leadership roles and improve the efficiency and quality of care. 

Valuable Shift Work Insights for Hospitalists

Below are several key insights and priorities for anyone working as a hospitalist to consider carefully. Focused attention to each of these areas can make a meaningful difference in job satisfaction and performance. 

1. Prioritize Work/Life Balance:

Working as a hospital physician offers excellent experience and learning opportunities. It’s no wonder that over 85% of hospitalists find satisfaction in their career choice. However, it is important to make wise choices to ensure working relationships that deliver on these promises. 

Here are a few points to consider: 

• Set Boundaries: Hospitalists often work irregular hours. Establish clear boundaries between work and personal life. Avoid overcommitting and allocate time for self-care. Any practicing physician will have heard this advice before—-but take it to heart.
• Schedule Regular Breaks: It’s easy to lose track of time or feel compelled to keep pushing when you “feel fine.” Take short breaks during shifts anyway. Don’t wait until you’re tense and overwhelmed. Releasing some steam periodically will make you more efficient and effective in the long run. 
• Seek Well-Run Hospitalist Services: Find employment opportunities that offer innovative scheduling approaches that respect your needs. Look for sustainable, long-term working relationships with partners who ‘have skin in the game.’ 

2. Make Effective Staff Communications a Priority

A well-run hospitalist service begins with sound scheduling practices and effective communications. Getting these two essential elements right leads to better patient care, reduced errors, and lower stress for hospitalists, specialists, and nurses alike. 

Some methods for enhancing communication include: 

• Standardize Handoff Procedures: Develop clear guidelines for patient handoffs. Ensure that critical information is communicated accurately during shift changes.
• Use Technology Wisely: Leverage secure messaging platforms or electronic health records (EHRs) for seamless communication. Avoid relying solely on verbal handoffs.
• Team Huddles: Regular team huddles allow hospitalists, specialists, and nurses to discuss patient cases, address concerns, and align on care plans.

3. Collaboration Among Hospitalists, Specialists, and Nurses

Leadership is a key responsibility of the hospitalist. Getting the best out of your team begins with effective communication, but it doesn’t end there. Robust collaboration is essential to delivering the best possible patient care and making the best use of the talent available. 

Here are just a few approaches to creating a more collaborative environment: 

• Interdisciplinary Rounds: Conduct daily rounds involving hospitalists, specialists, and nurses. Discuss patient progress, treatment plans, and any adjustments needed.
• Shared Goals: Foster a culture of collaboration rather than siloed departments. Set standards and areas of focus where everyone can connect and contribute. Reinforce the sense of teamwork wherever possible. 
• Education and Training: Regular workshops and training sessions are appreciated. They result in more skilled staff members and better communication, and they show an investment in the career development of your team members. 

4. Unique Staffing Solutions

High-performance hospitalist teams are focused on quality of care and staff morale. They continually ‘take the temperature’ of the team and foster a sense of teamwork and ownership. They don’t shy away from new approaches to staff scheduling. Innovation in staff scheduling is just one attribute that makes Open Source MD different from large hospital staffing agencies. Our emphasis on sustainable, long-term hospital-physician relationships is changing how hospitalist services work.

How OSMDs staffing solutions improve your hospitalist service:

• Shift Blending: This allows physicians to consolidate hours, which helps them accrue more money and have more flexible time off options.
• Balanced Workloads: OSMD requires hospitals to staff the hospitalist service adequately. This reduces burnout and ensures consistent staffing.
• Improved Continuity of Care: OSMDs hospitalist hybrid shift staffing model improves continuity of care and reduces fragmentation. 

5. Quality Documentation

Clinical documentation improvement is another key communication avenue that is often overlooked. Better documentation leads to higher-quality care and substantially reduced errors. CDI can also dramatically reduce denials and get authorizations for the care your patients need more often. CDI is one more area where Open Source MD and its partners can help. 

Some simple ways to improve the quality of clinical documentation include: 

• Structured Templates: Use standardized templates for documentation. Clear and concise notes improve continuity of care.
• Timeliness: This is simple but powerful. Encourage and incentivize completing documentation promptly. Delayed entries can lead to inaccuracies.
• Audit and Feedback: Regularly review documentation quality and provide constructive feedback.

Open Source MD: Connecting Physicians and Hospitals

Industrial-sized hospital staffing agencies focus on quarterly profits and pleasing shareholders first. The performance and morale of the hospitalist service and the relationship between the hospital and staff are an afterthought to most of them.

Open Source MD sees our role in the physician-to-hospital relationship differently. We aren’t interested in acting as a middleman or a go-between who constantly gets in the way. Instead, we focus on bringing physicians like you and great hospitals together. 

We’re motivated by a different set of metrics. We seek to build mutually beneficial, long-term relationships between physicians and hospitals. 

If you’re weary of the status quo and wish there was a better way — there is!

Let’s discuss. Call  336-997-9840 or contact us online to learn more.