Hospitals employing 32% more physicians

Hospitals' physician employment jumped 32 percent from 2000 to roughly 212,000 physicians in 2010, according to the 2012 edition of AHA Hospital Statistics. That means hospitals employ almost 20 percent of all physicians, notes a Hospitals & Health News Daily article.

Although 55.1 percent of physicians are not employed or under contract with hospitals, the report reveals that 20.3 percent are covered by a group contract, 17.3 percent are directly employed, and 7.2 percent have individual contracts, the article notes.

What's more, the amount of hospitals employing hospitalists rose from 29.6 percent in 2003 to 59.8 percent in 2010, according to the report. Meanwhile, hospitals' intensivist employment increased from 20.7 percent to 29.7 percent between 2007 and 2010, H&HN Daily notes.

As hospitals continue to hire more physicians, they should keep in mind the costs of employment ventures. For instance, Eastern Connecticut Medical Professionals directly lost $4.2 million in 2010 when it operated physician office practices and a hospitalist program for the Eastern Connecticut Health Network, FierceHealthcare previously reported. Changing to an employment can cost hospitals an average of $150,000 to $250,000 per year during the first three years of employing a physician, according to a December 2011 study in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

For more information:
- read the H&HN Daily article
- check out the FierceHealthare article on physician employment costs

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