You know the routine, Dress the part, be nice, dont say anything controversial or negative. Pretend to be interested no matter how boring their endless discussion of their golfing skills is; dont order a dish more expensive than the boss. Avoid messy dishes.
Keep a copy of every communication you have with the group. Record or immediately write a summary of all oral conversation with any group members.
Use this opportunity to investigate the practice. Before you go check out the hospital web site for the names of the Anesthesia doctor who work there. Your goal is to find the names of all the doctors who have left the practice in the last few years. Google all of those names along with the names of the corporation. Asking for this information from the group will get you labeled as a malcontent but to take a job with out an investigation the backgrounds of your employers is a recipe for disaster.
When you get there try to get as many months of the call schedule as possible. Old call schedules often have phone number of recently departed members of the group, plus they tell you how fair the call schedule is.
While you are in town go to the county court house and look up the names of all of the members of the group looking for lawsuits.
If your interview goes well and you are seriously considering the group you need to contact the people who have left to get the real information about how he group treats its employees.
How to find old employees of a group;
Look up all the anesthesiologist in that town with the state licence database,
http://www.docboard.org/docfinder.html
Look up all the anesthesiologist in that town with the AMA directory, ASA Directories for the last three or four years.
Look up all the anesthesiologist in that town with UPIN number search, great for towns with more than one hospital since it lists the billing address with the name separating out different practice locations.
http://upin.ecare.com/
or
http://www.upinregistry.com/provider_form.asp
Another good database dr-411 since it gives some info not seen elsewhere,
http://www.dr-411.com/default.asp
With all the names you have found you should be able to find a few former employees to contact about the group since this is your best source of unbiased information.
These databases will help you get current names and addresses of former employees.
Google is often helpful.
Searching for current phone number and addresses
http://www.zabasearch.com/
or your favorite directory search database.
Doc board is good for finding some one who has moved;
http://www.docboard.org/docfinder.html
which may give a current address.
If you have no luck you might want to invest a few buck and ask your local detective to search for people you cant locate. They also can search for lawsuits more broadly than the court house.
Now call your names and politely ask them to tell you about there experience at your potential employer.
While this is just the basics, your hospital credential application probably will be ten to twenty pages of invasive questions, many of which will be verified. Why shouldnt you know as much about your potential employer?
If you do not find any skeletons in the closet or areas of concern you need to find a competent lawyer and some trusted friends to look at your contract. Finding a lawyer who knows anything about anesthesia contacts is very difficult many attorneys will claim to be able to review a contact. So just because your buddy and fellow resident used that attorney does not say much about his competence in reviewing anesthesia contacts and providing relevant feedback.
Lastly don't ever buy a house until you have been there at least a year or made partner.
But dont say that to the realtor they force you to take a tour of the town with, you can be sure that everything you say to her will funnel back the anesthesia group.
