Hospitalist Jobs May Be The Future For Physicians

For many medical school graduates getting close to finishing their residency programs, the dream of returning home and opening up their own private practice is what motivates them to continue through the long days that sometimes seem like an eternity. Yet as difficult as residency can be, some young physicians face an even greater nightmare when they join a private practice or attempt to set up their own. The healthcare environment is changing, that’s for sure, and private practice isn’t what it used to be.

To keep costs down and health insurance reimbursements as high as possible, many private practice physicians are banding together to create multiple practices. Others are choosing to go it alone and hope for the best. The problem is, many physicians involved in private practice find there are more patients than they can accept; there are stringent demands from insurance companies; and there is little time to do their job the way they always believed it should be done. So, is there another option?

Hospitalist Positions

A hospitalist job is one in which doctor takes a general physician’s role in a hospital setting to care for patients who don’t have a primary care physician. Like a general practitioner in private practice, a hospitalist physician will see all sorts of cases including:

• common colds
• influenza
• broken bones
• minor infections

The obvious advantage to this type of position is the fact that the doctor is only responsible for seeing and caring for his patients. All of the paperwork, administration, scheduling, etc. is left up to the facility for which he is working. It offers the physician the opportunity to care for his patients without all of the additional hassles of office administration. For many doctors this is a golden opportunity. After all, many of them got into medicine specifically because of a desire to help people.

Although hospitalist jobs tend to be a bit gentler on the doctor’s personal schedule. Office hours can still be hectic, and there can still be too many patients to see on any given day, but at the end of the day the doctor goes home and lets the hospital pick up the slack. In a private practice a physician is almost always on call, if he works alone, or he must share the on-call duties with others in a combined practice.

Emergency Room Medicine

Emergency room medicine is a specialized form of general practice which provides a different level of challenge and excitement. General practitioners looking to add a little bit of edge to their careers might consider switching from private practice to an emergency room setting. With such a shortage of doctors throughout the industry, emergency rooms are suffering just as much as every other area. They are desperately in search of physicians and graduating residents willing to work in their departments. And they are willing to make it worth your while.

The Healthcare Law in 2014

Some experts believe that when Obamacare is fully implemented in 2014 it will, by its nature and structure, reduce the number of private practice physicians in the industry. As the United States moves closer to a single-payer system doctors will be shifted to hospitals and other public clinics and away from private practice. Doctors just beginning their careers may want to consider going to the hospitalist route now while they can still demand the highest salaries possible and best working conditions. Once the healthcare law kicks in, physicians making the transition to the hospital environment may be forced to accept lower wages and less pleasant assignments.