Higher pay doesn’t always mean higher happiness for cardiologists. Between 2025 and 2026, cardiologists saw a 10% pay increase, but reported a 2% drop in happiness. What’s behind the unhappiness could be the increased workload.
“Administrative burden has exploded,” Karen Walker, MSN, RN, enterprise director for cardiovascular services at Santa Clara Valley Health Systems in San Jose, Calif., told Becker’s. “More money often means more patients, more documentation, more prior authorizations. The 10% pay bump came with a 30% increase in paperwork that nobody talks about. Cardiologists just can’t do it all — on call covering stress, covering interventional cardiology, covering rounding in the clinic, new patients, follow-up patients, the ratios. It’s totally too much.”
The administrative burden and increased patient loads lead to less time connecting with patients.
“The work itself has changed. Cardiology has become increasingly procedural and protocol-driven,” Ms. Walker said. “I’ve seen the change and the trajectory from focusing on inpatient stays to transitioning to the outpatient arena, because of the penalties for readmissions. So it’s important that we pay attention to the cardiologist and the burden we’re putting on them, because they can’t do it all. The 2% happiness drop isn’t about ingratitude. It’s about a profession that’s optimizing for the wrong metrics.”
The right metrics are all about quality care and helping cardiologists connect with patients.
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