Family Practice Lifestyle

[keithslc]

I have a few questions about the family practice field of medicine I was hoping somone might be able to clarify for me:

I am curious why some doctors that practice in their own clinic or private setting still maintain affiliations or are hired by a hospital. My guess is that hospitals are advantagous if they want to do OB work also? Maybe they are better compensaated in some way as far as HMO affiliations or Insurance ties?

Besides normal office visits do family doctors who are not affiliated with hospitals still normally do hospital rounds and what all is performed by family docs when they do hospital rounds(besides OB work).

Can someone give me a typical family practice doc's work schedule?
ex... 6-8am hospital rounds,8-5 office hours,6-7 paperwork??

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[DWP DO]

I have a few questions about the family practice field of medicine I was hoping somone might be able to clarify for me:

I am curious why some doctors that practice in their own clinic or private setting still maintain affiliations or are hired by a hospital. My guess is that hospitals are advantagous if they want to do OB work also? Maybe they are better compensaated in some way as far as HMO affiliations or Insurance ties?

Besides normal office visits do family doctors who are not affiliated with hospitals still normally do hospital rounds and what all is performed by family docs when they do hospital rounds(besides OB work).

Can someone give me a typical family practice doc's work schedule?
ex... 6-8am hospital rounds,8-5 office hours,6-7 paperwork??

I'll attempt to answer your question as best I can. FP affords a great deal of flexibility in terms of lifestyle depending upon the type of practice you have.

Some are more traditional involving outpatient and inpatient care. In which case you could expect weekday daytime office hours, (9-5) and inpatient care before, sometimes during, and after office hours. Also included are call duties which involve telephone calls and hospital visits after hours on a periodic basis, and time for administrative duties.

Many are also in outpatient only practices: in primary care offices, urgent care centers, and emergency departments. Urgent Care Centers have extended hours but generally are closed at night. ER is shift work covering 24/7.

As far as practice arrangements go, there are various options as well: self-employed private solo or group practice, an employee of a private group practice, an employee or an independent contractor of a physician group or hospital, government employee or contractor, etc.

As far as OB is concerned, alot depends upon where in the US your practice is located. It is more common for FP's to practice OB in the western US than elsewhere. But, this is changing as malpractice insurance rates for those who practice OB are soaring driving many OB's let alone FP's out of the business. Something to consider.

As for compensation, again this too is quite variable, depending upon the location and type of practice. There are some good websites which can give you a good idea of what an FP should expect.

Hope this has helped. DWP