Advantages of Being on Hospital Staff --> RE: Getting Killed by Hospital Dues

[Guest guest]

Of course, there are lots of opportunity costs and real costs for being on staff at a hospital.

But there are also advantages that counteract some of these costs -- if by nothing else - convenience of being able to do certain things because one is on staff.

A few off the top of my head...

Able to admit own patients -- although I am using our mini-hospitalist more and more -- mainly because I am 25 minutes from the hospital one way and it takes a huge chunk out of my clinic if I have to go admit someone -- let alone go round in the morning.

Call in orders -- this is a big one for me -- not infrequently, a patient will need (insert procedure here) and I can just fax up some orders and get it done -- most recent example was a chemo patient who needed an outpatient blood transfusion -- I just faxed up the orders and it got done.

Can have a say in the hospital and how it works -- probably easier on my 50 doc staff than some of the massive staffs in the big city -- but at least I have a vote and can raise concerns

Collegiality -- seeing other docs at CME, meetings, on the care unit -- one of the few chances I get to rub elbows with colleagues, get caught up on scuttle butt, etc

Pay for Call -- probably not an option for everyone else, but because we have a modified hospitalist (basically a solo med-peds doc who covers admits 8-6 and rotating nights and weekends), the hospital pays other docs to cover call for all patients admitted to the hospital -- I get about $1,200 on average per month for not that much work -- plus I can bill for the admits I do, too. So, I get about $14,000+ each year to cover this. Not sure how long this will last, but that makes it worth it right now. When my practice dissolved and I went solo with my wife (we jobshare), we talked about saving the $800 in dues per year and the hassles of admitting to the hospital during the day -- but then the hospitalist system arrived and has worked well for the medical community, so we stayed on staff -- probably been a good financial decision so far.

Adds variety to practice -- inpatient care can be exciting and interesting

There are obviously other advantages, too.

Decided to leave off the disadvantages (there are many) and just try to accentuate the positive for this post.

Cheers

Locke, MD