Do you get call pay?

[lloydchristmas]

Anyone have to take call for a rural ED or hospital? What is the going rate for NP/PA call? I need some resources before I go to admin over our crappy call pay rate of $9/hr. (it's a rural hosp and ED that we can take call from home but if they have to call in per diem help it is at least $50/hr).

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[deleted6669]

I have had to take call at 2 places.
at 1 place it was 5.50/hr and straight pay to come in.
at another it was" you will take call and like it!" ( included in base pay which was not increased when call was added) + base pay to come in.
most rural facilities keep someone there 24/7 (to keep getting their federal critical access hospital funds) for 35-65/hr and don't do the call thing.

 

[lloydchristmas]

I have had to take call at 2 places.
at 1 place it was 5.50/hr and straight pay to come in.
at another it was" you will take call and like it!" ( included in base pay which was not increased when call was added) + base pay to come in.
most rural facilities keep someone there 24/7 (to keep getting their federal critical access hospital funds) for 35-65/hr and don't do the call thing.

Wow that sucks too. The majority of other responses I'm hearing are $40-60 per hour. One NP in AR makes $100/hr. I think in the near future the "take call and like it" facilities are going to find themselves empty handed. It's either pay us fairly and get good quality or pay some rentadoc/np/pa $1000/day at least who doesn't give a damn about the facility or patients. I've heard of some facilities using the Loan repayment programs as leverage, which isn't legal. I'm thinking of exposing these to the federal government. I hope they get their status as a loan repayment site yanked.

 

[deleted6669]

$40-60/hr is a salary, not an on-call rate. keep in mind that 5.50/hr was 5 yrs ago and the "take it and like it" comes along with a 125k+ base salary with an excellent benefits/retirement package. they only use the call pool for sick calls. they staff 24/7 so it is rare that you would get called but have to be there within 20 min notice if you are.

 

[Chronic Student]

I work for a surgeon and take call every other week for an entire week at a time. I do not get paid any extra for this and it is supposedly included in my salary.

The plus of it is that when my boss and I get our butts kicked on call we may take an afternoon off when we're done with call and when he goes off on vacation, then I am on vacation and it does not come out of my regular vacation days.

At first I was really unhappy with the fact that I would take that much call and not get paid any extra. However, now that I've been there a little while, I've already gotten a week off this year and will get another week off in February.

Not too shabby and it seems like it will even out in the end.

-Mike

 

[lloydchristmas]

$40-60/hr is a salary, not an on-call rate. keep in mind that 5.50/hr was 5 yrs ago and the "take it and like it" comes along with a 125k+ base salary with an excellent benefits/retirement package. they only use the call pool for sick calls. they staff 24/7 so it is rare that you would get called but have to be there within 20 min notice if you are.

Call it salary, call, icing, pumpernickle, or whatever you want... no one should take call for such bad wages, unless it's bundled with an above average salary package as you mentioned, which is nothing more than a shuffle of the numbers. If the salary is average, then the call better be at least par, especially for a critical access hospital that gets cost-based reimbursement and can pay whatever they want to. If they don't approve a decent raise for taking call, they have no other reason than just not liking us personally. (and we're pretty easy to get along with)

 

[momtwo]

My daughter is a PA and gets call pay. One rate for overnight and one rate for weekend call. I of course don't know the rate she gets but I know it's good compensation and she's happy to take call. She is practicing in Oncology.