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What are the pros and cons of working as an anesthesiologist in a hospital vs. in private practice?
Originally posted by prominence
What are the pros and cons of working as an anesthesiologist in a hospital vs. in private practice?
Originally posted by Airborne
At one of our hospitals, the anesthesiologists are hired by the hospital - they agree that for them this is a good set up. They don't have to worry about maintaining a practice, negotiating OR space, dealing with the more mundane aspects of running a practice. Having said that, they also have little say with the running of the department, as one in their own practice does.
As far as remuneration, they get $28 per billable unit (I hear this is on the low end) - Say for example, they do a 45 minute hernia repair, that has a 4 unit reimbursement for induction and 1 unit for each 15 minutes, giving a total of 7 units or ~$200 for the operation. They can easily do 6 in the OR in a day and many times it is far more than this (I'm trying to keep it simple) - thus around ~1200 per day, or 6K per week and 300k per year. Clearly not a bad set up for working for the anesthesiologist or hospital.
Airborne
Originally posted by residentphysici
With a hospital (non-academic), you are usually dealing with an establish employee contract (used by all of the employees of the hospital), there are no buy-ins, and they are usually trustworthy. The other advantage is that you do not have to worry about your patient's insurance. The hospital will do the billing and pay you a guaranteed salary regardless.