Jobs / Healthcare / 29-1229.02

Hospitalists

Provide inpatient care predominantly in settings such as medical wards, acute care units, intensive care units, rehabilitation centers, or emergency rooms. Manage and coordinate patient care throughout treatment.

US jobs
342,720 (SOC 29-1229 group, "Physicians, All Other")
Median wage
$265,930 a year
Job family
Healthcare

Can agents do the work of hospitalists?

We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Healthcare:

  • Task levelPartialOne benchmark, from early 2025. On Stanford's MedAgentBench, where agents do clinical tasks in a simulated electronic health record, the best recorded model completes 69.7% of tasks (Claude 3.5 Sonnet v2). It has no maintained leaderboard, so newer models are not measured. No benchmark in our collection tests work with patients.
  • Project levelPartialOnly adjacent evidence. GDPval includes nurses among its 44 occupations. OpenAI reports that GPT-5.5's deliverables won or tied against professionals' work in 84.9% of comparisons across all occupations. No benchmark in our collection tests clinical work over days, such as managing a patient's care.

Benchmarks for the job family

These cover work in healthcare, not always this occupation's tasks.

  • GDPvalby OpenAIProject level · Wins plus ties against experts
    84.9%GPT-5.5 · Apr 2026
    Strong
  • GDPval-AAby Artificial AnalysisProject level · GDPval-AA Elo
    1846 EloClaude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort, Default Fallback) · 23 Sep 2026
    Unrated
  • MedAgentBenchby Stanford UniversityTask level · Task success rate
    69.7%Claude 3.5 Sonnet v2 · 24 Jan 2025
    Strong

Typical tasks

From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.

  • Diagnose, treat, or provide continuous care to hospital inpatients.
  • Prescribe medications or treatment regimens to hospital inpatients.
  • Order or interpret the results of tests such as laboratory tests and radiographs (x-rays).
  • Admit patients for hospital stays.
  • Conduct discharge planning and discharge patients.
  • Write patient discharge summaries and send them to primary care physicians.
  • Refer patients to medical specialists, social services, or other professionals as appropriate.
  • Direct, coordinate, or supervise the patient care activities of nursing or support staff.
  • Attend inpatient consultations in areas of specialty.
  • Communicate with patients' primary care physicians upon admission, when treatment plans change, or at discharge to maintain continuity and quality of care.
  • Participate in continuing education activities to maintain or enhance knowledge and skills.
  • Direct or support quality improvement projects or safety programs.
Other job titles for this occupation (19)

Academic Hospitalist · Consultant Physician · Hospitalist · Hospitalist Medical Doctor (Hospitalist MD) · MD (Medical Doctor) · Physician · DO Physician (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine Physician) · Hospitalist Nocturnist Physician · Hospitalist Physician · Intensivist · Internal Medicine Hospitalist · Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Hospitalist (Neonatal ICU Hospitalist) · Neurohospitalist · Neurology Hospitalist · Nocturnist · Nocturnist Hospitalist · OB Hospitalist (Obstetrics Hospitalist) · Pediatric Hospitalist · Pediatric Hospitalist Physician