Putting a Dollar Figure on a Doctor’s Worth to a Hospital

In an article posted on the WSJ Health Blog, James A. White asks and answers the following questions:

What’s a doctor worth to a hospital in terms of annual revenue? And what specialties average the most and the least in hospital revenue generation? The answer to the first question averages about $1.54 million a year, based on 114 U.S. hospital responding to a survey by physician recruiters Merritt Hawkins. That’s up slightly from the $1.5 million a year per doc that hospitals averaged in revenue in 2007, the last time the recruiting outfit took the survey. (Revenue here means net inpatient and outpatient dollars derived from referrals, tests and procedures done in the hospital.)

Merritt Hawkins also asked about revenue generation in the last 12 months by 17 doctor specialties. Not all 114 hospitals replied for all specialists but below are the averages for the responses received. Also included is a list of average annual salaries that came from other Merritt Hawkins data:

Hospital Annual Revenue per Doctor by Specialty

Specialty	Avg. Revenue	Avg. Salary
Neurosurgery	$2,815,650	$571,000
Cardiology/Invasive	$2,240,366	$475,000
Orthopedic Surgery	$2,117,764	$481,000
General Surgery	$2,112,492	$321,000
Internal Medicine	$1,678,341	$186,000
Family Practice	$1,622,832	$173,000
Hematology/Oncology	$1,485,627	$335,000
Gastroenterology	$1,450,540	$393,000
Urology	$1,382,704	$401,000
OB/GYN	$1,364,131	$266,000
Cardiology/Non-Invasive	$1,319,658	$419,000
Psychiatry	$1,290,104	$200,000
Pulmonology	$1,204,919	$293,000
Neurology	$907,317	$258,000
Pediatrics	$856,154	$171,000
Ophthalmology	$842,711	$282,000
Nephrology	$696,888	$240,000