Recruiting a pulmonologist.

What does a pulmonologist earn?

BLS lists pulmonologists among the physicians it does not break out, as the panel above shows, so no federal pay series exists for the specialty. Offers have to be compared with each other and with the employer's own data.

Hospital roles often pay a salary for a set number of intensive care weeks or shifts, with extra pay for nights. Clinic-heavy roles turn on bronchoscopy, pulmonary function testing and sleep studies, and candidates ask who reads those studies and how that work is credited.

Where do pulmonologists look for jobs?

Where new hires come from

Most new hires finish a fellowship after residency

Who employs them

Hospitals and their intensivist programs, pulmonary and critical care groups, academic centers, multispecialty clinics and sleep centers.

Who you compete with for candidates

Intensivist-only jobs with shift schedules and no clinic, tele-ICU services offering remote nights, and academic centers.

Pulmonary and critical care fellows train after internal medicine residency and decide in the final fellowship year whether they want intensive care, clinic or a blend. Groups that let a fellow shape that mix tend to sign them.

Experienced physicians leave intensive care roles because of night burden more than pay. A posting that states the week-on, week-off pattern and who covers nights answers the question they are really asking.

Every board’s listing, with its posting lengths and how CV access is sold, is in the job board directory; what a physician job posting costs compares them.

The locum agency directory has each agency’s states, malpractice coverage and physician pay where it states them.

What does an open pulmonology position cost?

What the calculator has for pulmonology

• Revenue one physician brings in: $2,361,111 a year (estimate, AMN Healthcare (Merritt Hawkins), 2019)
• Locum pay: $225 to $250 an hour (estimate, Locumstory (CHG Healthcare), 2025)
• First-year pay: no published figure, so you supply the first-year pay you expect to offer
• Contingency agency fee: 20 to 30% of first-year pay (estimate, MedStaff Nationwide, 2026)

The survey revenue figure in the calculator is $2,361,111 (estimate, AMN Healthcare (Merritt Hawkins), 2019) a year per pulmonologist to an affiliated hospital, much of it from intensive care admissions and procedures. A clinic-only group should enter its own figure.

Locum pulmonary and critical care physicians are paid $225 to $250 (estimate, Locumstory (CHG Healthcare), 2025) an hour. An intensive care unit cannot run without coverage, so a vacancy usually means locum weeks or a tele-ICU contract until the hire starts.

Open the calculator with pulmonology chosen

Which recruiting channels work for pulmonology?

Split the job if you can. A full-time intensivist role and a clinic-focused pulmonology role often fill faster than one position that asks for both.

Questions to ask

• How many intensive care weeks a year does the role include, and who covers nights?
• Who reads sleep studies and pulmonary function tests?
• Is there a tele-ICU partner, now or planned?
• What first-year pay will the offer state?

Which rules bite pulmonology recruiting?

Pulmonologists order tests and admissions that hospitals bill, and some own sleep labs, so their pay and ventures fall under the referral rules.

Every federal rule this site cites, grouped by what a practice or recruiter is doing, is on the federal rules page. For the contract itself (pay models, tail coverage, restrictive covenants), read the physician employment contract, clause by clause. These notes describe the rules and cite them; they are not legal advice for a particular offer or contract.