The median total compensation of physician executives increased 7 percent to $325,000 in 2013 from $305,000 two years ago, keeping pace with the salary growth rate in 2011, according to a new survey.

The payment of chief quality/patient safety officers had the most significant growth at 22 percent, along with a category referred to as other C-suite officers, at 25 percent. These include new titles that have emerged with healthcare reform, such as chief operations officer, chief integration/implementation officer, and chief strategy/innovation/transformation officer, according to the survey conducted by Cejka Executive Search in conjunction with the American College of Physician Executives.

The survey reported data from 2,364 physician executives from 27 organization types and 19 titles. Nearly half (47 percent) of respondents were senior and C-level executives. The organizations with the highest median compensation for its physician executives were tertiary hospitals, health system corporate and hospital corporation parent.

The growth rate of physician CEO compensation lagged behind other clinical department chairs and division chiefs, said Paul Esselman, executive vice president and managing principal at Cejka Executive Search. Physician CEOs reported median compensation rose 4 percent since 2011 to $410,000, while payment for chief medical officers was 6 percent higher to $365,000.

“The factors of CEO compensation were still in large part focused around financial performance of the organization, whereas the clinical executives had more to do with the care delivery and the transformation of care,” he said.

The vast majority (88 percent) of physician executives said that their responsibilities are oriented toward performance, a category that also accounts for the greatest percentage of their administrative time (19 percent). Performance tasks include oversight of quality, efficiency, clinical effectiveness, patient satisfaction or financial benchmarks and outcome, application of best practices and process improvement, and problem resolution.

Among the findings, the survey also showed that accountability for outcomes and emphasis on healthcare delivery transformation is becoming more important.

“Going forward, these outcomes will continue to be tied to compensation, mostly in the areas of their bonus compensation,” Esselman said. “It will be tied specifically to the efficiency and the effectiveness of care as well as overall patient satisfaction. I believe we’ll continue to see organizations focused on those elements.”

The clinical specialties with the highest rate of compensation increase were pediatrics (17 percent), obstetrics/gynecology (16 percent) and internal medicine (10 percent).