CFA's Career Options

[CSTCFA]

I am currently a CST Student, I am planning also to advance to CFA (CSA). I am wondering if there are CFA's out there that are already pursing that line of work. And what speciality or specialities did you choose ? Did more career options and higher pay open up to you, once you became a CFA ?

I am also planning to work for myself, like eventually contract myself out to hospitals, surgeons, surgi-centers, etc

How successful are the odds of me doing that as a CFA ? and what steps should I take in that direction ?

Thanks so much for any and all feedback !!!

I am looking to network and meet like-minded individuals.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Yvette, I'll move this to the Clinicians forum, as I think you'll find more people on your career path there who can offer you advice.

 

[KNC]

I have been a surgcal assistant for almost 8 years now, and two of them as a technician. I specialize in orthopedics and rotate doing orthopedic surgery along side the P.A.'s that work for my docs. there are 3 of us that are secifically surgical assistants and 2 P.A.'s. I was asked as a surgical technician to joint the group and was sent to a suturing class. I had to account for all the documented surgeries that I had done as the first assistant to the council of certified first assstants. Now things have gotten a but more stringent since I became a surgical assistant.
As far as pay goes, I definitely make more money than I did as a technician, but not as much as if I would have gone on to P.A. school. I do surgery, that it....The P.A.'s get to surgery and office time. if you ask me, you would have greater marketability if you be came a P.A.... This is because most doc are looking for someone who can make rounds do the paperwork and office. I basically free up the P.A to do most of these things by being available to do surgery. The docs (7 in all) that I work for are doing well enough that they can afford surgical assistants and P.A.'s but that is not the case everywhere. i know of two places that there are schools to become a surgical assistant. East Virginia Medical school is one of them and there is another one in Tennessee. These schools are geared toward certified surgical assistants. Maybe in these areas, the marketability is greater..
I hope this helps and good luck to you!!

 

[core0]

I am currently a CST Student, I am planning also to advance to CFA (CSA). I am wondering if there are CFA's out there that are already pursing that line of work. And what speciality or specialities did you choose ? Did more career options and higher pay open up to you, once you became a CFA ?

I am also planning to work for myself, like eventually contract myself out to hospitals, surgeons, surgi-centers, etc

How successful are the odds of me doing that as a CFA ? and what steps should I take in that direction ?

Thanks so much for any and all feedback !!!

I am looking to network and meet like-minded individuals.

I was a CST before going to PA school. I'll give you my take. When I was a CST there were more than a few independent SAs and SA groups doing assisting. However, this was starting to get more difficult to do.

The biggest reason was accountability. As a CFA you will have to have a sponsoring physician to get privileges. Most hospitals will let you assist with any type of surgery as long as you had surgical privileges. The problem comes when there are issues of behavior or technique. If the CFA is an employee of the group then the hospital could go to the sponsoring physician who is also the employer. When you have an independent CFA it becomes an exercise in fingerpointing. If they go to the sponsoring physician they will say its not their case (or sometimes even their specialty). The physician of record will say they are not the sponsoring physician. In reality the physician who did the case is responsible but when you have behavior issues then it becomes difficult. Becuase of this many hospitals were only credentialling CFAs that are w-2 employees of the group or hospital employees.

The hospital usually pays a few dollar more than a CST. Private groups may or may not pay more but its usually a matter of reimbursement. CFAs cannot be reimbursed for Medicare/Medicaid cases. Reimbursement for other insurances is highly variable but getting harder (in my opinion). Due to the lack of PAs (and NPs to a small extent), CFA jobs will continue to exist.

On the other hand if you want to apply to PA school you would have an advantage. Around 1/3 of PAs work in surgery. Surgical training during PA school can range from minimal to extensive. Programs know that CSTs will have most of the operative skills needing only the medical management skills.

So to summarize, because of reimbursement issues CFA has minimal possibilities at best (although this will as usual depend on the location). As a stepping stone to PA its very helpful.

David Carpenter, PA-C

 

[KNC]

The finger pointing statement would be an issue for P.A.'s that are contracted out as well....As far as pay, I can only say about me, but I get paid $12,000 dollers less than a P.A. with the same amount experience in ortho surgery....so I dont know what S.A.'s are making in your neck of the woods but I am doing pretty good over here......

 

[core0]

The finger pointing statement would be an issue for P.A.'s that are contracted out as well....As far as pay, I can only say about me, but I get paid $12,000 dollers less than a P.A. with the same amount experience in ortho surgery....so I dont know what S.A.'s are making in your neck of the woods but I am doing pretty good over here......

Thats very possible. For that matter I know of SAs that are making north or $100k. However, thats the exception.

According to the bureau of labor (not the best source) the average CST salary is around $40k. There is really no data for SAs so its somewhat more than that. Average ortho PA salary is around $86k. A CST moving to CFA could make more money but its really difficult to say how much. On the other hand an experienced OR tech could significantly increase their salary by going the PA route. It also lends itself to other areas of medicine outside the OR.

The issue with contracted PAs is that they have a license and behavior can be addressed through the BOM (although many hospitals are cracking down on these groups also). In states such as TX this also applies to SAs but this is the minority. Bottom line is that hospital credentialling does not like professions with potential liability where they are unable to initiate action against problem practitioners. This allows those practitioners to move from place to place without any record.

There are a few other areas that you can make a transition from CST. Our OPO uses CSTs to procure bone and eyes for organ procurement for example.

I'm not saying that you can't make money as an SA. There are quite a few people doing this work. On the other hand there is a lot of hype and advertising about making big bucks that isn't true. To make decent money takes years of building relationships and no small amount of luck. For every SA making big bucks there are lots working for hospitals making $1-2 an hour above their CST wage.

David Carpenter, PA-C

 

[KNC]

Thats very possible. For that matter I know of SAs that are making north or $100k. However, thats the exception.

According to the bureau of labor (not the best source) the average CST salary is around $40k. There is really no data for SAs so its somewhat more than that. Average ortho PA salary is around $86k. A CST moving to CFA could make more money but its really difficult to say how much. On the other hand an experienced OR tech could significantly increase their salary by going the PA route. It also lends itself to other areas of medicine outside the OR.

The issue with contracted PAs is that they have a license and behavior can be addressed through the BOM (although many hospitals are cracking down on these groups also). In states such as TX this also applies to SAs but this is the minority. Bottom line is that hospital credentialling does not like professions with potential liability where they are unable to initiate action against problem practitioners. This allows those practitioners to move from place to place without any record.

There are a few other areas that you can make a transition from CST. Our OPO uses CSTs to procure bone and eyes for organ procurement for example.

I'm not saying that you can't make money as an SA. There are quite a few people doing this work. On the other hand there is a lot of hype and advertising about making big bucks that isn't true. To make decent money takes years of building relationships and no small amount of luck. For every SA making big bucks there are lots working for hospitals making $1-2 an hour above their CST wage.

David Carpenter, PA-C

I agree with your post......Although I must say, I have yet to see any advertising to become an S.A.-C not that that matters much.... I believe it is in a students best interest to look into the P.A proffession because you can do more with that degree....Although I like my job, you can see from my other posts that I am looking in another direction.....I have to find something I can do till I am 70 some ( due to no social security later in life)....and this ain't it!!