Can you dictate hours in private practice?

[mamabear]

I am a third year student and am interested in OBG. I have one question that no one at my school can seem to answer with certainty:

If you decide to work in a private practice group in OBGyn, can you dictate your own hours?

Some people tell me that you can but that it depends on how much you want to make. Others tell me that groups will hire with the expectation of a certain work load and schedule. So which is it?

I think a lot of students interested in OBGyn have this concern. We know we like the profession but are reluctant to surrender too much of our lives to do it. I imagine that I would be unhappy if I had to work more than 50 hours per week--post residency of course. Can I work this amount (or less) provided I don't mind the pay?

I would appreciate it if residents or OBGyns in private practice could please offer some personal experience or advice. I feel like there are other fields that could accomodate such a schedule--psychiatry, FP, etc. but that I wouldn't be true to my interests.

Thank you for any help!

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[tiredmom]

I've worked with 2 female ob/gyn's who "shared a full time position" - they both worked about 25-35 hours per week. Their income was less, but still enough to survive I'm not sure how they worked the hours in the office - I think they each did 2.5 days, and both did "full call" - which for the group amounted to 1 night every 10 days or so and 1 weekend per month.

 

[ohbee gin]

Go solo private practice. One of the OBGYN residents at my audition rotation will be doing this next year. I know it sounds strange as solo practice is almost as unheard of as forceps delivery but... an option.

 

[Wednesday]

I don't think private practice is the way to go--they usually have worse hours and the malpractice is usually so high that you have to work even more hours than if you were in a group. I guess it depends on the state though.

I learned a lot from talking to the chief residents in my program this summer because they were all looking for jobs. In my program, a lot of the residents are planning to get a somewhat hardcore job for the first two years to make sure they are well prepared for the boards (which you take at least two years after residency). But they all had different types of options--different call schedules, ob>gyn or gyn>ob, etc. There is also a new trend called laborists. The idea is that you can do obstetrics as shift work and work for the hospital. Better hours all around. Hasn't caught on in my area, but I hear that some hospitals out west are trying it. Anyone have experience with this?

Most of us don't want to be tied to the hospital/pager for the rest of our careers. I think that this is one of the big reasons that ob/gyn has decreased in popularity so much recently, students are much more interested in quality of life than ever before. The problem is, most people have to do what they love or they're be miserable. I suspect that as we move through our careers, we will be a generation committed to finding solutions to making our work lives better.

 

[Quijotemd]

I don't think private practice is the way to go--they usually have worse hours and the malpractice is usually so high that you have to work even more hours than if you were in a group. I guess it depends on the state though.

I always thought private practice (not solo) was the way to go. I understood that this option affords the best income and flexibilty in practice. But what do I know. These are the kinds of issues I don't think we can bring up in interviews and most in academics can't speak to this topic since they've not gone down that path.

I read last week in one of the ACOG pamphlets that comes in the mail that about 2/3 of OBGs surveyed said they were burned out. This is not reassuring. Then the article suggested how to avoid burn-out. One of the ways is too not take on too many patients. This gets at the original post in this thread...will we have control over our patient load in practice?

 

[tiredmom]

My understanding is most group practices have a quota of how many patients due to deliver each month, plus the certain amount seen per day or per week. Many will have a limit/quota on how many medicaid patients you see per month also (for delivery) - since you don't make as much per patient on the medicaid ones. You can work above those numbers, but usually it doesn't make for happy business partners if you work below it... I know a doctor who was let go because he was seeing 88% of his expected load.

 

[Wednesday]

I always thought private practice (not solo) was the way to go. I understood that this option affords the best income and flexibilty in practice.

Yeah, solo, that's what I meant. I have heard that solo is bad.

I don't know much about all of this either. I am just having faith that I can somehow make it work out in the end because I want a good life AND I want to be an ob/gyn. I think it's going to be on us (ie our generation) to figure out a better way to practice.