prominence
01-19-2007, 10:50 PM
What type of job responsibilities do occupational medicine physicians who work for corporations have?
Is it strictly administrative, or do they still have clinical duties (i.e physicals for worker's compensation cases)?
i see these job posts for medical directors of occ. med clinic, and I also wonder what they do.
alimarie81
01-20-2007, 10:02 AM
I am considering applying for combined IM/occ med residency next year...here's my 2 cents
as an occ med physician working for a company, you most likely have clinical responsibilities (physicals, workman's comp evals, exposure evaluations, etc) combined with administrative duties like working with OSHA, developing worker's safety plans, etc. If you are higher up and dont want clinic work, I am sure that you can find employment as a "consultant" for cases, and do strictly admin stuff. These docs also act as expert witnesses when litigation is involved, and have time in the courtrooms, dealing with insurance companies, etc (one of the negatives in my opinion). At the Chicago program I am interested in, I know some recent graduates that secured jobs at places like O'Hare airport, and U.S. Steel Corp doing things similar to what was detailed above. Although the pay scale for these jobs isn't anything to cheer about, they are still decent (prob start $160K or so), it is not that difficult to find 9-5 jobs with no call, and no weekends...which may make up for the less glamorous parts of the field.