Doctors at Work

Specialists withlong hours:

The 40-hour workweek has neverbeen routine for physicians, but the 2003Physician Compensation & ProductionSurvey from the Medical Group ManagementAssociation (www.mgma.com)shows that for several specialties, includinginternal medicine (40.3 hours) andfamily practice (39.6 hours), the 40-hourweek is about average. interventional cardiologists(49.9 hours), anesthesiologists (47.8hours), and general surgeons (46.3hours). Those doctors who had shorterweeks were emergency room physicians(38 hours), dermatologists (38.3 hours),and ophthalmologists (39 hours). As forwhat the doctor's work brought in, themedian gross charges for a primary caremedicine practice were about $439,000.That represents a 5.1% growth over theprevious year and a 6.1% annual increaseover 5 years. The medical specialty withthe highest median annual gross chargeswas invasive cardiology ($1.5 million);the lowest was psychiatry ($374,539).