Every year, hospitalist group leaders across the country look forward to SHM’s annual State of Hospital Medicine report. The report provides thousands of data points that enable hospitalists to compare their own group’s productivity and compensation against national and regional averages.

And now, hospitalists can receive the 2012 report for free when they participate in the survey.

“This is the definitive tool for hospitalists to measure their compensation, practice models, and productivity against the most up-to-date information from hundreds of similar operations,” says Leslie Flores, SHM senior advisor of practice management.

The report will be somewhat different from the last two years; so, too, will submitting information for the survey. This year, SHM and MGMA will be conducting two separate but parallel surveys (MGMA will license the data from its survey to SHM), which will then be compiled into the State of Hospital Medicine report.

“The means for this year’s report will be different, but the end product—and its utility for hospitalist programs—will not differ greatly,” Flores says.

The report is a valuable tool for hospitalist group leaders because it contains national and regional data on:

• Hospitalist demographics;
• Practice and compensation models, including academic hospital medicine practices;
• Types of hospitals and patients served;
• Coverage models, including use of nonphysician practitioners (NPPs);
• Models of practice funding; and
• Comparisons of work RVUs by practice model.

Now is the time to start the survey, Flores says. In order to provide a data-rich report, the questionnaire requires more than just a few minutes to complete. The survey closes on March 9.

To begin, visit www.hospitalmedicine.org/survey