commercial pathology labs

[pathguy2010]

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Just a few questions about commercial path labs (quest, etc.)

1. How many pathologists end up working for these labs vs. private practice vs. academics? Do most of these labs just hire derm/gi/gu pathologists?

2. What is the job environment like (stress, workload, etc.) compared to other practice options?

3. In general, how do work hours/salary/benefits for these jobs compare to pathology jobs in other locations?

Answers to any of these questions or pros/cons of working at a commercial lab would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Entgegen]

I bet there are plenty of varying experiences with them, but in my particular area, there's one big corporation that sorta' runs path around here. However, the pathologists employed by said corporation are contracted out to hospitals/hospital labs in the area. So while they're actually employed by the corporation, the pathologists work from and have their offices in the hospitals, where they rotate grossing/frozen/whatever responsibilities. From what I've heard from another student, at one particular hospital the pathologists make ~175 starting out and closer to 250 after several years. Not sure about benefits/vacation time.

 

[KeratinPearls]

i read an article of a company of 100 pathologists (super subspecialized) that was a merger of three practices...im wonding if this is a trend or has been a trend?

ameripath quest whatever...if you work for them, they are essentially milking you for profit. i know ppl who dont mind working for them...the draw is the good salary, good hours and no call/weekends...i wonder how much profit Ameripath makes on a pathologist who reads full time? must be on the order of several 100K.

 

[wild0ne]

ameripath quest whatever...if you work for them, they are essentially milking you for profit. i know ppl who dont mind working for them...the draw is the good salary, good hours and no call/weekends...i wonder how much profit Ameripath makes on a pathologist who reads full time? must be on the order of several 100K.

What!? Businesses actually make a profit off the employees that work for them?! 😱

I don't have an MBA or anything, but I thought that was the whole point of hiring employees.

I don't get it.... good salary, good hours, no call/weekends...and pathologists are being duped? Wow. I can't imagine why the job market would suck for some of you. 🙄

To the OP, I've heard from a classmate that the corporate jobs pay well, but make you work for it. Meaning, you'll be expected to sign out a lot of cases. This may or may not be a negative for you.

 

[Unty]

If you can go out and do business with clinicians yourself (assuming they won't exploit you), go for it. That way all the profit goes into your pocket and not some fat CEOs pocket.

 

[Path or bust]

What!? Businesses actually make a profit off the employees that work for them?! 😱

ha ha, exactly

 

[2121115]

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone with first hand (or second hand) experience with these types of jobs, but for hemepath only. Basically companies like Genoptix, CSI, Hematogenix, or even LabCorp or Ameripath doing hemepath only. I've heard these positions pay well and offer no call/no weekends in exchange for working hard and not making as much as a PP partner. Does anyone know how much they pay starting and after a few years? I'm not referring to a situation like the one above where a hospital based practice has been bought by Ameripath, but rather a true commercial lab signing out only hematopathology and related areas (FISH, molecular, etc).

 

[lipomas]

I am curious as to how those positions can offer "no call or weekends." Hemepath is where many pathology emergencies come in. If you run a reference lab and someone sends you an APL on thursday night that doesn't arrive in your lab and get processed until friday night, and you don't see it until monday the patient could be dead. Maybe your workweek is Tues-saturday instead, with some others working monday-friday.

I suspect they would pay somewhere between $200-$300k with potentially more but I am not sure. I know someone who did heme + surgicals at a reference lab and started at $250k.

 

[2121115]

I am curious as to how those positions can offer "no call or weekends." Hemepath is where many pathology emergencies come in. If you run a reference lab and someone sends you an APL on thursday night that doesn't arrive in your lab and get processed until friday night, and you don't see it until monday the patient could be dead. Maybe your workweek is Tues-saturday instead, with some others working monday-friday.

I suspect they would pay somewhere between $200-$300k with potentially more but I am not sure. I know someone who did heme + surgicals at a reference lab and started at $250k.

Yeah, not sure about that either. I'm basing that only on what I've heard.

The money sounds decent though. If you believe what has been in the Dark Report recently there is going to be an explosion of corporations buying out traditional private practices so the partners can cash out their equity and retire while the practice hires younger pathologists at a lower salary than the old partners were making. I've heard of (more than) a few situations like this and the new partner pay is 250-280k (not unlike the situation with AmeriPath referenced above and not too shabby by my standards anyway). If this is true the difference in corporate lab income and private practice income will all but disappear and I'll be no worse off at a corporate lab (other than starting at a higher salary) so I'm giving it some thought. I don't know what the difference in job security or work environment would be though.

 

[green mantis]

I am curious as to how those positions can offer "no call or weekends." Hemepath is where many pathology emergencies come in.

Companies which do HP, like the ones mentioned, probably don't have their pathologists take call because the hospital pathologists take night & weekend call. The hospital pathologists send out the HP cases (& probably anything else not SP).

If one of these companies is covering all of the pathology from a hospital, I think they'd actual have pathologists at the hospital.


----- Antony