compensation, malpractice, etc

[yaypoker1]

hi everyone,

im an MS3 just trying to get some more info about radiology, namely some issues such as:

compensation cuts- how severe will they be (up to 25% or more?). any thoughts on how universal health care, if ever implemented, may affect radiology in terms of # reads and compensation?

malpractice- how often do radiologists get sued and what typically happens when a lawsuit is filed?

for those in practice already, has radiology kept you stimulated enough or does reading just get boring at some point? how many reads do you do a day on average?

thanks very much, and congrats to all those who matched this year.

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[yaypoker1]

hmm, guess not a popular topic....or stupid questions

 

[DCMDtobe]

No one can predict the future of rads salaries. Reimbursement has been going down and probably will continue to go down. But radiologist productivity has been going up, so salaries have actually been rising in the face of reimbursement cuts. However, productivity probably won't continue to go up this fast. All in all, in 10+ years, you probably won't get paid 2x the average of an internal medicine doc, but maybe 50% more. Still, that's fortune teller stuff. It's just hard to tell. Major studies on such topics have been notoriously wrong in the past (like the prediction of a huge surplus in gas, which is partly responsible for the huge shortage that developed).

Best predictor of the future may be the past. Meanwhile, docs in most all fields are worried about falling salaries.

Legal liability is a major concern in rads. You're responsible for every inch of every image. All your mistakes are well documented. And the jury / judge may decide your case in hindsight: really looks like you should have paid attention to that little mass back in 2001, when we know this 39 y/o woman died of cancer in 2004.

Most rads enjoy their work and find it to be more intellectually stimulating that many other docs, based on what I've seen. Great thing about rads is the routine stuff can be handled pretty quickly, giving you time for the interesting cases, the great consults with other docs, lifelong learning, etc.