A Hospitalist's Schedule

Initially appeared on vox.com 10/10/2008.

I absolutely love what i do. I love sifting through the elements of a complicated history to come up with differential diagnoses. I love the subtleties of a physical exam and performing obscure maneuvers to try and get a clincher. I love plucking out the one essential value on a screen full of lab results that will provide the missing piece of the puzzle. In short, i love dealing with the complexities of disease and the ever-shifting landscape of therapies.

(The pay is not bad either. Especially in these hard times when stock prices are falling hard left and right; a steady stream of cold hard cash is - pun intended - just what the doctor ordered.)

But there is one big perk to being a Hospitalist that i absolutely love as well - and that is the schedule.

Our particular program works on a 5 and 7 schedule. That is: i work five days, get a weekend off, work seven more days, and then get a week off. Then rinse and repeat.

That's it. For the whole year. I work 12 days out of every 21. Doing the math, i only work 209 days in a year, which equals 22 weeks off.

Twenty-two weeks off! Imagine what i could do with that:

1. Take a long vacation in the Philippines.
2. Take up a hobby - such as running.
3. Travel the US.
4. Spend quality time with my wife.
5. Watch my son grow up.

On second thought, there's no need to imagine it, because i'm doing all of the above - and then some.

(Some Hospitalist programs even have 7-on and 7-off schedules. Imagine what you could do with that!)

It's funny when people ask me about my schedule, because they always look for a catch.  I guess it sounds too good to be true.

Yes, i do have overnight shifts, but it starts at 10pm and ends promptly at 8am, and i only have to do it 14-21 days a year.

No, i do not go on 24-hour call. The longest i work is a 12-hour workday, while the shortest (in theory, although i'm not that fast yet) would be 6 hours.

No, i am not constrained to a rigid schedule - i can make arrangements and string together weeks off if desired (of course i'll have to string together working weeks also, but it's worth it).

No, i do not get killed with the workload. The average patient load is 16-17, and the most i've ever seen in one day was 23 (once).

Like i said, i love what i do.