My group is considering covering the pathology services for a second hospital in town. Some of the partners are reluctant about the moving forward as they think we would have to have two people on call each weekend (a main call and a back up who stays in town in case there are two frozens at the same time). How do other groups that cover more than one hospital work call when covering more than one hospital? I think one person could be able to cover two hospitals but am curious about what arrangements other groups have. I've only worked in the group for six months, but have never done a frozen section on the weekend so far and feel it would be very unlikely to have frozen sections at both hospitals at the same time on a Saturday or Sunday.
This is COMMON and presents no issue whatsoever to many groups. There is a group in central California which covers hospitals from Tracy to Amador all the way down through the Yosemite Valley, for those unfamiliar with that geographic region, is almost as large as some states.
The key is communication. If your clinicians expect you to be at their beckon call 24-7 with no communication, you will fail. If they are reasonable and communicative it is no problem whatsoever.
Having 2 people on call is ridiculous. Dont even consider that.
The other issue is whether "the juice is worth the squeeze", meaning is $$ worth even having to worry about 2 simultaneous frozens at point A and point B.
If you are a smart businessmen you
will find a way to generate a nice new revenue stream from this wonderful opportunity. If you arent, you will fail, rue the day you ever even considered taking the contract at this second location and likely make little coin from this to balance the negatives.
The choice is yours, dont let lazy, negativity nancy partners take away your potential windfall profits. Be assertive if you do want this.
GOOD LUCK and grats on the options you do have bro.