collageWhat is the average pay for doctors? How much do doctors make a year? This article answers those questions and gives you a general overview on how much surgeons, primary care physicians and OB-GYN doctors make as well as what they really think about their salaries.
How much money doctors make an hour? How much money do doctors make a year? How much money do doctors make at their jobs?
How Much Money Do Doctors Make A Month?
After graduating from residency, doctors have the option to go on for advanced specialty training, but in some specialties, they can go right to work. This group includes primary care physicians such as pediatricians, internists and family practitioners, as well as general surgeons, anesthesiologists and obstetrician / gynecologists. Starting salaries vary for these specialties.
With a base pay offer of $189,000 a year, on average, family practitioners and pediatricians are offered the lowest pay of all physicians, according to the medical search and consulting firm Merritt Hawkins & Associates’ 2012 Review of Physician Recruiting Incentives. An orthopedic surgeon, in comparison, earns $519,000. Doctors who go on to specialize make a considerable amount more. Cardiologists are high on the list, being guaranteed an average base salary of $512,000, according to the Merritt Hawkins data. The third highest-paying specialty is in Urology, with these physicians earning an average of $461,000, not including production bonuses or benefits.
Average Doctor Salary Across the U.S.
| Salary Range (Percentile) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 25th | Average | 75th | |
| Annual Salary | $59,000 | $124,055 | $181,500 |
| Monthly Salary | $4,917 | $10,338 | $15,125 |
| Weekly Salary | $1,135 | $2,386 | $3,490 |
| Hourly Salary | $28 | $60 | $87 |
Average Salaries For Specialties
After completing medical school and the required on-the-job training, in 2010 the average doctor earned $80 per hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This hourly rate translates into an annual salary of $166,400. With benefits such as health care, retirement plan contributions and paid leave, the total pay is often higher.
The BLS reports that, as of 2010, general practitioners or family doctors had a median annual income of $202,392, while doctors with specializations had median annual salaries of $356,885. Anesthesiologists had an annual income of $407,292, followed by surgical specialties at $343,958 annually. Physician specializations that garnered the lowest annual salaries included family practice at $189,402 and pediatrics at $192,148.
starting salary for doctors in USA
The anticipated rate of job growth for all physicians is higher than average for all occupations at 24 percent. The aging U.S. population, retirement of existing physicians and the need for physicians in rural and underserved urban areas makes job prospects bright for physicians between 2010 and 2020. The BLS expects the total number of positions available for physicians to increase from 691,300 to 859,300 between 2010 and 2020. Due to the potential for higher earnings, the majority of these doctors will work in specializations instead of general medicine.
Here are Doximity’s (a social network for physicians) average U.S. Physician Salaries by specialty:
Allergy and Immunology – $296,705
Anesthesiology – $357,116
Cardiology- $436,849
Colon and Rectal Surgery – $343,277
Dermatology – $400,898
Emergency Medicine – $320,419
Endocrinology – $217,610
Family Medicine – $227,541
Gastroenterology – $379,460
General Surgery – $360,933
Hematology – $376,660
Infectious Disease – $205,570
Internal Medicine – $223,175
Medical Genetics – $158,597
Medicine/Pediatrics – $205,610
Neonatology/Perinatology – $290,853
Nephrology – $306,302
Neurology – $243,105
Neurosurgery – $609,639
Nuclear Medicine – $290,639
Obstetrics & Gynecology – $315,295
Occupational Medicine – $229,450
Oncology – $341,701
Ophthalmology – $343,144
Orthopaedic Surgery – $535,668
Otolaryngology (ENT) – $369,790
Pathology – $302,610
Pediatric Cardiology – $303,917
Pediatric Emergency Medicine – $273,683
Pediatric Endocrinology – $157,394
Pediatric Gastroenterology – $196,708
Pediatric Hematology & Oncology – $192,855
Pediatric Infectious Disease – $163,658
Pediatric Nephrology – $183,730
Pediatric Pulmonology – $218,106
Pediatric Rheumatology – $200,027
Pediatrics – $206,961
Physical Medicine/Rehab – $278,283
Plastic Surgery – $407,709
Preventive Medicine – $270,888
Psychiatry – $227,478
Pulmonology – $317,323
Radiation Oncology – $418,228
Radiology – $404,302
Rheumatology – $244,765
Thoracic Surgery – $471,137
Urology – $381,029
Vascular Surgery – $428,944
| State Name | Average Salary |
|---|---|
| California | $150,000 |
| Florida | $70,000 |
| New York | $112,000 |
| Texas | $110,000 |
how much money do doctors make a year
Overall, the average physician salary—including both primary doctors and specialists—was $313,000 annually, according to the 2019 Medscape Physician Compensation Report. Not only is this an impressive average salary, but it’s also a significant increase from salary averages reported by Medscape in 2015.
how much money do doctors make an hour
Pay for professional careers, such as medicine, is typically reported as an annual salary rather than an hourly wage. Using reported averages, however, it is possible to roughly calculate how much a medical doctor typically earns per hour.
According to Best Medical Degrees, doctors work an average of 59.6 hours per week. Take the average annual salary of a primary care physician ($243,000) and divide by 50 to get the weekly rate. Dividing by 50 assumes that the physician works 50 weeks out of the year and takes two weeks of vacation. That works out to $4,860 per week. For the average work week of 59.6 hours, that’s $81.54 per hour.
Using the average specialist salary of $346,00 per year, that breaks down to $6,920 per week, or $116.11 per hour. That figure once again assumes 50 weeks worked and 59.6 hours per week.
how much do doctors make a day
The average doctor salary is £65,692 within the UK. Junior doctors in foundation year 1 & 2 can expect to earn at least £26,000 to £31,000. A doctor salary rises once specialist training commences, and significant rises are dependant upon length of service, experience gained and specialism in particular areas of medicine.
The Duties of Doctors Towards Patients
Doctors have many duties toward their patients. Their responsibilities cover their own actions, as well as orders they give to their assistants, such as nurses, medical students and residents. Here are the doctor’s obligations toward patients.
Diagnosing and Treating the Patient
In legal terms, doctors have an obligation of means toward their patients, not an obligation of result. This means that they have to take appropriate steps available to make the right diagnosis, provide treatment and follow-up on their patients’ progress.
Doctors must base their actions on up-to-date scientific information and use recognized treatments in the right way.
They must treat their patients attentively and conscientiously.
Doctors must recognize their own limits: in case of doubt, they must get information from other people or refer patients to specialists.
The duty to treat patients includes the duty to
- prescribe the right medication,
- tell patients about the advantages, disadvantages, risks and alternatives regarding a proposed treatment or operation, and
- provide adequate follow-up to the patient within a reasonable amount of time.
For example, after a treatment, a doctor must provide the medical follow-up required by the patient’s state of health, or at least make sure that a colleague or other professional follows up.
Informing the Patient
Doctors must give their patients all the information they need to make free and informed decisions. For example, doctors must tell their patients about the following:
- diagnosis
- nature, goal and seriousness of the treatment
- risks of the treatment
- other treatment options
The doctor’s duty to provide information also includes answering patients’ questions.
The doctor’s duty is toward the patients themselves, the people who make decisions on behalf of patients, or the parents of children under the age of 14.
Doctors must explain the chances of success and the risk of failure of the suggested treatment, keeping in mind the patient’s specific condition.
Doctors must also inform their patients about the possible negative effects of a treatment. However, it is impossible for a doctor to talk about all the possible risks; doctors must tell their patients about the foreseeable risks, in other words, the risks that are most likely to occur. Doctors must also tell patients about any rare risk that could have serious consequences.
The extent of the duty to provide information depends on the circumstances and the patient in question.
For some types of treatments, doctors are required to give more complete and specific information about the risks. This is the case, for example, with purely experimental treatments as well as treatments that are not aimed at curing an illness or injury, like some types of plastic surgery. In these cases, doctors must tell patients about all possible and rare risks.
Obtaining the Patient’s Free and Informed Consent
The reason behind the duty of doctors to provide information to patients is to give patients all the information they need to make free and informed decisions with full knowledge of the facts about the treatment and care offered. When a patient agrees to treatment or care, this is called consent.
The duty to get the consent of patients is a continuous process. This is why patients must be kept informed about any new information about their states of health and the treatments they are receiving.
Respecting Confidentiality
Doctors have a duty to respect their patients’ confidentiality. This is sometimes called the duty of professional secrecy.
This duty covers both the information patients tell their doctors and any facts doctors discover about their patients as part of the doctor-patient relationship.
Professional secrecy belongs to the patient, not the doctor. Doctors cannot reveal what their patients tell them, unless their patients waive the confidentiality of the information or if the law allows it. For example, the Public Health Act says that certain diseases must be reported to public health agencies.
Also, doctors can reveal some confidential information when they have very strong reasons to do so related to the health or safety of the patient or people close to the patient.
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