The career development quarterly for physicians of all specialties, PracticeLink Magazine provides readers with feature articles, compensation stats, helpful job search tips—as well as recruitment ads from organizations across the U.S.
Issue link: https://magazine.practicelink.com/i/332444
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PracticeLink.com SUMMER 2014
recommends doing the same due
diligence about your clinical re-
sponsibilities. In addition to being
an assistant professor, this gastroen-
terology-epidemiology subspecialist
would be treating patients in Loyola's
Maywood, Illinois-based clinic. So
while she wasn't shy in asking fellow
physicians if they had appropriate
resources, talking to nurses, nurse
managers and other ancillary staffers
would have been helpful, too. "At the
end of the day," she says, "if you're
bogged down doing extra administra-
tive work, or you don't have people
to help you in other ways, you can't
focus on your career priorities."
During her f rst job search, Buck-
ley, who is now director of Acute
Care Surgery at Annapolis, Mary-
land-based Anne Arundel Medical
Center, concentrated on the sur-
roundings: What was the shape of
the OR? How bright were the lights?
Did the linoleum f oor have cracks?
At the time, scoping out the physi-
cal environment seemed important,
albeit in hindsight was "very superf -
cial." So during her next search, she
paid less attention to the facility per
se and more attention to the profes-
sionals in it. By focusing a keen eye
on her future work mates, she had
a much better gauge of the culture
and cohesiveness of the group. "In
the middle of the night, whether or
not you have a shiny f oor in the OR
isn't as important as having a nurse
who's happy to be there, pulling your
instruments," Buckley says. "That
was kind of lost on me in the begin-
ning. But now I understand that it's
very important."
The interview: Dig deep
Because the mission of any interview
is to get a job offer, you want to do
everything in your power to convince
the hiring physicians that you under-
stand the practice's needs and are a
great f t. At the same time, you want
to cover your own issues. But what
did physicians who've maneuvered
interviews in the past overlook that
you should set your sights on?
While focusing on the physical
and technological plusses of each
potential employer, it can be easy to
take your eyes off another ball—the
stability of the practice and your fu-
ture f nances. New physicians should
pay less attention to the immediate
money and more to the longer-term
deal and prospects for building a
successful practice. That requires
getting the inside scoop on compen-
sation models as well as future salary
increases, bonuses and restructured
deals. How will they be f gured? And
how would production and the payer
mix factor into earnings?
Even as the Affordable Care Act
changes the payer landscape in ways
not yet fully understood, you need
to know how private pay versus
Medicaid and Medicare might f gure
into your caseload, collections and ul-
timately your pay. And with compen-
sation often reliant on the traff c you
generate, make sure that you'll see
your fair share of new patients and
What I wish I'd known
Continued from page 56
"You need to get down
exactly what you're going to
be doing and where you're
going to be doing it," Pokabla
says. "Make sure that you
understand their plan and that
it matches yours."
BRINGING TOGETHER
HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS
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