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Role hub · Hospitalists

Hospitalist: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

BLS does not publish pay for hospitalists separately. Every pay figure on this page is for the BLS occupation “Physicians, All Other” (SOC 29-1229), which includes hospitalists and other jobs; it is not a figure for hospitalists alone.

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Updated Nov 2, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of workers in the BLS occupation “Physicians, All Other” earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$265,930
Hourly
$127.85
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

Hospitalists provide inpatient care predominantly in settings such as medical wards, acute care units, intensive care units, rehabilitation centers, or emergency rooms. The median pay is $265,930 a year ($127.85 an hour) (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is post-doctoral training (48% of workers surveyed by O*NET).

Median pay
$265,930
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
342,720
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 5 of 5
extensive preparation
Most common education
Post-Doctoral Training
48% of workers
Key facts

Hospitalists at a glance

  • Workers in the BLS occupation “Physicians, All Other” (which includes hospitalists) in the United States earned a median annual wage of $265,930 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

  • In its 2025–35 employment projections, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a doctoral or professional degree as the typical entry-level education for hospitalists in the United States.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS estimated that 342,720 people were employed as hospitalists in the United States in May 2025, not counting the self-employed.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

Explore the role

Every page for Hospitalists

SalaryPhysicians, All Other salary

BLS pay data for this occupation, by state and percentile.

Open →How to becomeHospitalist how to become

Education, training and the skills to build first.

Open →Interview questionsHospitalist interview questions

Questions with what they test, plus practice mode.

Open →Free toolCheck your resume

Parsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.

Open →
The work

What hospitalists do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Diagnose, treat, or provide continuous care to hospital inpatients.
  2. Prescribe medications or treatment regimens to hospital inpatients.
  3. Order or interpret the results of tests such as laboratory tests and radiographs (x-rays).
  4. Admit patients for hospital stays.
  5. Conduct discharge planning and discharge patients.
  6. Write patient discharge summaries and send them to primary care physicians.
  7. Refer patients to medical specialists, social services, or other professionals as appropriate.
  8. Direct, coordinate, or supervise the patient care activities of nursing or support staff.
Where this career works

Industries that employ it

Data Share of all hospitalist jobs in each industry, 2025 (BLS Employment Matrix). Figures cover all physicians, all other (SOC 29-1229), the broader occupation.

  1. Ambulatory healthcare services47.1% of all jobs in this occupation · +5.4% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $298,900
  2. Hospitals; state, local, and private30.6% of all jobs in this occupation · +3.7% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $218,610
  3. Government, excluding state and local education and hospitals11.1% of all jobs in this occupation · -4.9% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $290,580
  4. Educational services; state, local, and private5.9% of all jobs in this occupation · +2.5% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $119,060
  5. Administrative and support services0.6% of all jobs in this occupation · +1.8% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $271,800
  6. Professional, scientific, and technical services0.5% of all jobs in this occupation · +13.7% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $230,600

Sources: BLS 2025–35 National Employment Matrix (share of the occupation's jobs, projected change) and BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates (mean wage). Different industry estimates are not a pay forecast for any person.

Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

Social PerceptivenesscoreComplex Problem SolvingcoreJudgment and Decision MakingcoreReading ComprehensionActive ListeningSpeakingCritical ThinkingActive LearningService Orientation

Knowledge areas: Medicine and Dentistry, Biology, English Language, Psychology, Education and Training, Therapy and Counseling.

Tools and technology

Software hospitalists use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • Epic SystemsMedical softwareIn demand
  • MEDITECH softwareMedical softwareHot technology
  • Billing softwareBilling and invoicing software
  • Computerized physician order entry CPOE softwareMedical software
  • Electronic medical record EMR softwareMedical software
  • EpocratesMedical software
  • Global positioning system GPS softwareMobile location based services software
  • MDeverywhereMedical software
  • Medical decision support softwareMedical software
  • Medical procedure coding softwareMedical software
  • Medical reference softwareInformation retrieval or search software
  • Microsoft ExcelSpreadsheet softwareHot technology

Also called: Academic Hospitalist, Consultant Physician, Hospitalist Medical Doctor (Hospitalist MD), MD (Medical Doctor), Physician.

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).

How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.