Hospitalist job description: duties, skills and qualifications.

Core duties

14

O*NET task statements

Preparation

Job Zone 5 of 5

extensive preparation

Typical entry education

Doctoral or professional degree

BLS 2025–35 · broader occupation

Median pay

$265,930

BLS May 2025 · broader occupation

1. Diagnose, treat, or provide continuous care to hospital inpatients. importance 4.9 of 5
2. Prescribe medications or treatment regimens to hospital inpatients. importance 4.9 of 5
3. Order or interpret the results of tests such as laboratory tests and radiographs (x-rays). importance 4.9 of 5
4. Admit patients for hospital stays. importance 4.8 of 5
5. Conduct discharge planning and discharge patients. importance 4.8 of 5
6. Write patient discharge summaries and send them to primary care physicians. importance 4.7 of 5
7. Refer patients to medical specialists, social services, or other professionals as appropriate. importance 4.6 of 5
8. Direct, coordinate, or supervise the patient care activities of nursing or support staff. importance 4.6 of 5
9. Attend inpatient consultations in areas of specialty. importance 4.4 of 5
10. Communicate with patients' primary care physicians upon admission, when treatment plans change, or at discharge to maintain continuity and quality of care. importance 4.4 of 5
11. Participate in continuing education activities to maintain or enhance knowledge and skills. importance 4.3 of 5
12. Direct or support quality improvement projects or safety programs. importance 4.0 of 5
13. Direct the operations of short stay or specialty units. importance 3.9 of 5
14. Train or supervise medical students, residents, or other health professionals. importance 3.8 of 5

Work activities O*NET rates most important here: Assisting and Caring for Others, Getting Information, Making Decisions and Solving Problems, Documenting/Recording Information and Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates.

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

Software O*NET lists for this occupation: Epic Systems, MEDITECH software, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office software, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word. These are examples O*NET records for the job, not a list of tools every employer uses or a checklist of what you must know.

• Education: BLS lists a doctoral or professional degree as the typical entry-level education for the broader occupation.
• Experience: BLS lists no work experience in a related occupation as typical to enter.
• Training on the job: BLS lists internship/residency as typical once hired.
• Preparation: O*NET places the job in Job Zone 5 of 5 (extensive preparation). Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations.
• Licenses and certifications: not listed here. A license is a legal requirement set by a state; a certification is a credential from a private or professional body. Rules vary by state and employer, and a missing entry on this page does not mean none is required: check with your state's licensing board and see how to become a hospitalist.

The most common answer among O*NET's occupation experts for this occupation is post-doctoral training (48%).

Job title: Hospitalist
[Company] · [City, State] · [Full-time or part-time] · [Pay range, where your state requires one]

About the role
[Company] is hiring a Hospitalist to provide inpatient care predominantly in settings such as medical wards, acute care units, intensive care units, rehabilitation centers, or emergency rooms.
[One sentence on your team and why this role matters.]

What you will do
- Diagnose, treat, or provide continuous care to hospital inpatients.
- Prescribe medications or treatment regimens to hospital inpatients.
- Order or interpret the results of tests such as laboratory tests and radiographs (x-rays).
- Admit patients for hospital stays.
- Conduct discharge planning and discharge patients.
- Write patient discharge summaries and send them to primary care physicians.
- Refer patients to medical specialists, social services, or other professionals as appropriate.
- Direct, coordinate, or supervise the patient care activities of nursing or support staff.

What we are looking for
- [Education: BLS lists a doctoral or professional degree as typical for this occupation; set the level this role truly needs]
- [Experience: BLS lists no related work experience as typical to enter; set what this role needs]
- Strength in social perceptiveness, complex problem solving and judgment and decision making
- Working knowledge of Medicine and Dentistry and Biology
- [Software your team uses, e.g. Epic Systems or MEDITECH software]
- [Any license or certification your state or company requires]

[Schedule, benefits and how to apply]

Illustrative: every name, employer, school, date and number in these samples is fictional or a bracketed placeholder. Replace each bracket with your own true details; never copy a result you did not achieve.

Not a real job posting. This template is TryHired's illustration built from government occupational data. It is not an opening at any employer, and no employer wrote it.

For the broader BLS occupation Physicians, All Other, the median annual wage was $265,930 in May 2025. The broader occupation's median hourly wage was $127.85.

BLS counts the O*NET occupation Hospitalists within Physicians, All Other and publishes no separate wage for it, so the figure is for that broader occupation.

BLS projects employment in the broader occupation Physicians, all other to grow 3.4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 9,400 openings a year over that period, including openings to replace workers who leave.

See the full hospitalist salary breakdown by percentile, state and metro.

• Read a real hospitalist posting next to the core duties above. Duties it repeats, such as “Diagnose, treat, or provide continuous care to hospital inpatients”, tell you what that employer weighs most; anything it adds is specific to that team.
• Tailor your resume to the posting, not to this page: describe only hospitalist work you have actually done, with your own results.
• Prepare a story for each of the top-rated skills (social perceptiveness and complex problem solving); hospitalist interview questions turns them into practice questions.