Nationwide survey of internal medicine hospitalists in Korea: motivation and sustainability of a hospitalist career

Although a management fee for hospitalist service was established in Korea, the number of hospitalists required for the system to run remains outmatched. In January 2020 and February 2022, before and after the establishment of the hospitalist fee system respectively, cross-sectional online surveys were conducted among internal medicine board-certified hospitalists. There were 59 and 64 respondents in the 2020 and 2022 surveys, respectively. The percentage of respondents who cited financial benefits as a motive for becoming a hospitalist was higher in the 2022 survey than in the 2020 survey (34.4% vs. 10.2%; p = 0.001). The annual salary of respondents was also higher in the 2022 survey than in the 2020 survey (mean, 182.9 vs. 163.0 million in South Korean Won; p = 0.006). A total of 81.3% of the respondents were willing to continue a hospitalist career in the 2022 survey. In multivariate regression analysis, the possibility of being appointed as a professor was found to be an independent predictive factor of continuing a hospitalist career (odds ratio, 4.00; 95% confidence interval, 1.09-14.75; p = 0.037). Since the establishment of the hospitalist fee system, monetary compensation has improved for hospitalists. The possibility of being appointed as a professor could predict long-term work as hospitalists.