What does a hospitalist do?
A hospitalist, also known as a physician, is primarily responsible for diagnosing and treating patients' ailments or injuries, providing optimal care and service. They assess a patient's condition by running tests, interviews, and examinations, providing consultations, prescribing or administering medicines, coordinating with other health experts, and following up on patients' cases. A hospitalist may also study and update a patient's medical records, discuss conditions to patients and families, and implement the medical health and safety policies and regulations within the hospital.
Hospitalist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real hospitalist resumes:
- Manage acute and chronic illnesses including cardiac, respiratory, GI, infectious and skin issues.
- Provide acute care to infants, children and adolescents admit to the hospital, nursery and emergency room.
- Work with full EMR system.
- Calculate medications and TPN dosages.
- Review and process NICU TPN orders
- Place all nocturnal arterial lines for ICU.
- Maintain and document confidential medical records in the EMR.
- cover the pediatric unit emergency room nursery same day surgery high risk deliveries
- Cross cover for inpatients on medical, surgical, step down and ICU.
- Monitor patients' conditions and progress and reevaluat treatments as necessary.
- Provide in-patient consultation to assist with medical management to surgical and non service patients.
- Demonstrate clinical competency and compassion in providing care, while utilizing new technology to enhance patient outcomes.
- Participate in several system wide initiatives including an EHR physician advisory selection committee and an order set development team.
- Complete admission history and physicals, develop differential diagnosis, order appropriate laboratoryand diagnostic studies, present pertinent data to attending staff ..
- Perform suturing, joint aspirations, and assist with intubation during medical emergencies.
Hospitalist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 44% of Hospitalists are proficient in Patients, EMR, and Acls. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Compassion, and Detail oriented.
We break down the percentage of Hospitalists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 44%
Led weekly Multidisciplinary Rounds incorporating a variety of disciplines to address complex issues of psychiatric patients.
- EMR, 13%
Displayed technical proficiency in using NaturaeSoft electronic medical record (EMR).
- Acls, 6%
Initiate ACLS protocol as indicated.
- Epic, 6%
Scribed for trauma in level II trauma bay, provided tech support (EPIC) for clinicians via pager.
- Rehabilitation, 5%
Reflected on patient encounters and collaborated with rehabilitation team members.
- Critical Care, 4%
Provide service response for codes, inpatient episodic medical care, perform ICU and common critical care procedures.
Most hospitalists use their skills in "patients," "emr," and "acls" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential hospitalist responsibilities here:
Communication skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a hospitalist to have is communication skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "physicians and surgeons need to be excellent communicators." Hospitalists often use communication skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "maintained effective communication with nurses, ancillary staff, consultants, patients and their families. "
Compassion. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling hospitalist duties is compassion. The role rewards competence in this skill because "patients who are sick or injured may be in extreme pain or distress." According to a hospitalist resume, here's how hospitalists can utilize compassion in their job responsibilities: "demonstrated clinical competency and compassion in providing care, while utilizing new technology to enhance patient outcomes. "
Detail oriented. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of hospitalists is detail oriented. This skill is critical to many everyday hospitalist duties, as "patients must receive appropriate treatment and medications." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "worked on an attending oriented service and cared for patients from admission through discharge. "
Leadership skills. A big part of what hospitalists do relies on "leadership skills." You can see how essential it is to hospitalist responsibilities because "physicians who work in their own practice must manage a staff of other professionals." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical hospitalist tasks: "participate on medical staff committees critical care, quality management, ethics, and nursing leadership. "
Physical stamina. A commonly-found skill in hospitalist job descriptions, "physical stamina" is essential to what hospitalists do. Hospitalist responsibilities rely on this skill because "physicians and surgeons should be comfortable lifting or turning disabled patients, or performing other physical tasks." You can also see how hospitalist duties rely on physical stamina in this resume example: "perform admissions of general medical and progressive care patients including history and physicals and admitting orders. "
The three companies that hire the most hospitalists are:
- The Medicus Firm
166 hospitalists jobs
- KPG62 hospitalists jobs
- HealthTrust40 hospitalists jobs
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Compare different hospitalists
Hospitalist vs. Pediatrician, partner in private medical practice
Typically working together with physicians and nurses, a vascular technician specializes in performing imaging and diagnostic examinations to assess a patient's vascular health. Their responsibilities usually include gathering and analyzing patient information and medical history, operating diagnostic equipment, performing adjustments, discussing the extent of procedures to patients, and assisting them, making them feel comfortable every step of the way. Moreover, an avascular technician must produce and summarize findings, submitting them to physicians in a prompt and organized manner.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, hospitalist responsibilities require skills like "patients," "emr," "acls," and "epic." Meanwhile a typical pediatrician, partner in private medical practice has skills in areas such as "private practice," "internal medicine," "litigation," and "law firm." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Pediatricians, partner in private medical practice tend to reach similar levels of education than hospitalists. In fact, pediatricians, partner in private medical practice are 4.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 4.9% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Hospitalist vs. Primary care pediatrician
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that hospitalist responsibilities requires skills like "patients," "emr," "acls," and "epic." But a primary care pediatrician might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "primary care," "cme," "care clinic," and "adhd."
In general, primary care pediatricians achieve lower levels of education than hospitalists. They're 12.5% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 4.9% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Hospitalist vs. Allergist/pediatric pulmonologist
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from hospitalist resumes include skills like "patients," "acls," "epic," and "rehabilitation," whereas an allergist/pediatric pulmonologist is more likely to list skills in "data entry," "treatment rooms," "im," and "schedule appointments. "
Allergist/pediatric pulmonologists typically earn lower educational levels compared to hospitalists. Specifically, they're 15.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 30.8% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Hospitalist vs. Vascular technician
Even though a few skill sets overlap between hospitalists and vascular technicians, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a hospitalist might have more use for skills like "acls," "epic," "critical care," and "medical care." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of vascular technicians require skills like "ardms," "rvt," "vascular technologist," and "patient care. "
In general, vascular technicians earn the most working in the health care industry, with an average salary of $81,299. The highest-paying industry for a hospitalist is the health care industry.The average resume of vascular technicians showed that they earn lower levels of education compared to hospitalists. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 12.3% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 29.8%.Types of hospitalist
Updated January 8, 2025
