Has anyone ever worked CMG "travel physician" jobs?

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zurned

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Hi all,

I am wondering if anyone has been employed directly with a CMG (Teamhealth, USACS, Emcare, etc.) through their travel physician jobs? These are the ones where you are basically a locum but only at their sites within a certain geographic area. And they guarantee (require) a minimum number of hours per month, but it seems the pay is a little higher than other staff physician at the same site.

I am considering signing on with one. Has anyone here ever worked these jobs? Would like to hear about your experiences. Thanks.
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I’ve seen several people comment on these jobs and 2 things always come up.

1. When calculating compensation be sure to factor in uncompensated travel time. Might be that rate isn’t higher at all.

2. ED’s staffed via this model are hell holes
 
John Red said:
I’ve seen several people comment on these jobs and 2 things always come up.

1. When calculating compensation be sure to factor in uncompensated travel time. Might be that rate isn’t higher at all.

2. ED’s staffed via this model are hell holes
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Agree with both. 2+ years personal experience. Envision and Team Health.
 
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forums.studentdoctor.net

Travel Teams

I am considering working for one of the travel teams and wanted to know what they are like from someone who has actually worked for one of the companies like Envision, TH, etc.
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Lazy.
 
Read other threads.

Summary: May be good opportunity for someone in a specific circumstance (like mine) for a defined period of time. Would not recommend otherwise. You may get lucky and not be in a complete dump. You may get luckier and not be bounced around q6 months.
 
GonnaBeADoc2222 said:
Read other threads.

Summary: May be good opportunity for someone in a specific circumstance (like mine) for a defined period of time. Would not recommend otherwise. You may get lucky and not be in a complete dump. You may get luckier and not be bounced around q6 months.
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So how long does a typical locums assignment last before you have to find another site?

For me personally I’ve worked at a place where locums staff has been working there literally for years. And another place where I did orientation and there was no more locums need.
 
I’ve done this for 2 different CMGs. I did not like the experience. Typically I was sent to sites that were too hard to staff with local docs and asked to do the impossible. (Working short staffed and longer shifts since the site was understaffed) Spent the day before and the day after traveling. I was only making $20 more than a local doc when all things including travel time were factored in. I was bounced between a new ED about every 3 months for several years.

The only benefits were I could make my own schedule and live where I want. I had reasons for doing it, including my local sites being horrible sites to work as well and being single and not sure where to settle. Another good benefit was all the travel status and perks/points
 
I would never do it. A lot of times you end up at sites where they can't staff for very good reason. An extra 20 dollars an hour isn't worth switching ERs every few months and being in places with terrible staffing where no one else wants to work.

The best travel rate I've heard of is $275. It's not significantly different from my base rate. One of my seniors from residency did it, her first site was Akron after usacs took over and almost all faculty was gone and residency ended. Yeah.... No thank you.

One guy who I've worked with as a resident has it great though. He is doing locums for a site where the other doctors are compensated through rvu. Since he's hourly and the full time guys are rvu, they pick up 80 percent of the patients when on shift with him.
 
There is a reason most people no matter what the their situation can only do it for a few years. I do not know of one person who would do it for more than 2 yrs. The things I hate about EM medicine

1. Night shifts - No difference
2. Learning a new EMR that took me 6 months to be efficient at - Bad
3. Learning new consultants and gaining their trusts - Bad
4. Sleeping in a hotel all the time -Bad
5. Long Travels to Work - Bad
6. Holidays - No difference
7. Crappy Schedules - Bad. Most full timers gets the best schedules as their friends with the scheduler. You get placed on the crappiest shifts.


I don't see how this is worth it for an extra $50. I would not do it for an extra $100.
 
The only time I would consider long term locums would be if I wanted to pack up and buy my dream home in a ski town somewhere that is sure to have a locked up job market with resumes a mile long on every local ED director's desk. It "might" be worth it though I suspect I would get sick of it after awhile. Traveling 2 weeks out of the month just sounds terrible to me, regardless of the work sites. The ultimate killer for me is honestly...my dog. As sappy as it sounds, I love my damn dog so much that I would never leave him for 2 weeks. Spoiled little beast...I hope he realizes how good he's got it.
 
plick said:
So how long does a typical locums assignment last before you have to find another site?

For me personally I’ve worked at a place where locums staff has been working there literally for years. And another place where I did orientation and there was no more locums need.
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However long they want...given they own you.
 
cyanide12345678 said:
I would never do it. A lot of times you end up at sites where they can't staff for very good reason. An extra 20 dollars an hour isn't worth switching ERs every few months and being in places with terrible staffing where no one else wants to work.

The best travel rate I've heard of is $275. It's not significantly different from my base rate. One of my seniors from residency did it, her first site was Akron after usacs took over and almost all faculty was gone and residency ended. Yeah.... No thank you.

One guy who I've worked with as a resident has it great though. He is doing locums for a site where the other doctors are compensated through rvu. Since he's hourly and the full time guys are rvu, they pick up 80 percent of the patients when on shift with him.
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I know somebody who worked at Summa as a travel doc as well, I’ve heard horrible things. Nursing and staff purposely making things harder etc...

Also really poor management decisions by their chairman/director. Staffing a level 1, 100 bed ED with one attending overnight? That’s questionable and no attending should allow themselves to be in that position.
 
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NYEMMED said:
I know somebody who worked at Summa as a travel doc as well, I’ve heard horrible things. Nursing and staff purposely making things harder etc...

Also really poor management decisions by their chairman/director. Staffing a level 1, 100 bed ED with one attending overnight? That’s questionable and no attending should allow themselves to be in that position.
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It becomes harder to walk out when you've taken a 100k sign on and spent a lot of that money
 
miacomet said:
This. Again. Over and over. Locums is a far better deal where you can pick what you want and earn more money. I don't get it- do people just like being called "firefighter"?
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Locums doesn't come with an hours guarantee. Locums rates have come down significantly, btw, that they're really not far above the travel positions.

There are select circumstances why someone might do one of these jobs, like mine. Won't be doing it for long though.
 
These are almost always s*** jobs long term. We have a TH "HIT Team" which is kind of like a local firefighter squad that rotates among the local geographic TH sites when there is lack of coverage. The problem is that some of these sites are 2.5h away and there's absolutely no guarantee that you will be placed in a site that is convenient to home. When you factor in uncompensated travel time, it's essentially the same rate that the local docs get paid. The only positive is that it's a fixed rate and you can go as slow or as fast as you want with no stress about productivity. You have "control" over your schedule, but if you are ultra picky about days/nights you are available, they'll slash your shifts for the month and give them to someone else. People always like to think they are going to get gravy shifts because they can be selective, but the reality is that you get the crap shifts. Lots of nights and weekends. Totally not worth it to me, but I would do it for a year or two if my current job went to hell. It's tolerable, it's just not optimal.
 
The freedom of locums, with a comparable (if not much higher) hourly, makes it infinitely more attractive than CMG scabs. Better to be the boss of your own time and schedule.
 
Groove said:
These are almost always s*** jobs long term. We have a TH "HIT Team" which is kind of like a local firefighter squad that rotates among the local geographic TH sites when there is lack of coverage. The problem is that some of these sites are 2.5h away and there's absolutely no guarantee that you will be placed in a site that is convenient to home. When you factor in uncompensated travel time, it's essentially the same rate that the local docs get paid. The only positive is that it's a fixed rate and you can go as slow or as fast as you want with no stress about productivity. You have "control" over your schedule, but if you are ultra picky about days/nights you are available, they'll slash your shifts for the month and give them to someone else. People always like to think they are going to get gravy shifts because they can be selective, but the reality is that you get the crap shifts. Lots of nights and weekends. Totally not worth it to me, but I would do it for a year or two if my current job went to hell. It's tolerable, it's just not optimal.
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2.5h is ridiculous. I'd never work a job with that sort of drive unless the pay was insanely high. I only worked locums that were within 1 hour drive of an airport.
 
miacomet said:
The freedom of locums, with a comparable (if not much higher) hourly, makes it infinitely more attractive than CMG scabs. Better to be the boss of your own time and schedule.
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I've always chuckled at the notion that doing locums for a CMG is somehow being less of a "scab" than being in their travel team.
 
GeneralVeers said:
2.5h is ridiculous. I'd never work a job with that sort of drive unless the pay was insanely high. I only worked locums that were within 1 hour drive of an airport.
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Again, very select circumstances make this job the best financial choice. For me, it was because the area I had to live in for a few years (no choice, must live here temporarily for familial reasons) pays EM docs < 200 / hr, and that was not palatable to me.

I agree that if you have the freedom to live wherever you want, it's not a great decision to take this job.
 
Past EM Locums>EM full time >>>>> Firefighter
Current EM Locums=Full time >>>> Firefighter

There is a reason most can't do firefighting for a long time.
 
emergentmd said:
Past EM Locums>EM full time >>>>> Firefighter
Current EM Locums=Full time >>>> Firefighter

There is a reason most can't do firefighting for a long time.
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Not when full time is $170 / hr and requires 1600 hrs / yr.

Not everyone can up and move wherever they want.
 
Dr.McNinja said:
I mean, yeah we can. It's really not that hard. People don't because they don't like moving. It's a lot like going to the same place for vacation every year.
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One of the most presumptuous statements I've seen on sdn this month lol
 
Dr.McNinja said:
I mean, yeah we can. It's really not that hard. People don't because they don't like moving. It's a lot like going to the same place for vacation every year.
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We can. Our families cannot all the time. Or rather they may choose not to for reasons that we may well consider silly.

Eg, if it came down to not moving vs getting divorced, then what would you choose? If it came down to that, I would choose not moving.

("We" here means us SDN nerds, including myself, whose priorities trend a bit... different... than the average American or even the average doc. I happen to have chosen my lifestyle and my family such that they are OK with moving around a bit. It's still hard for them and I see the things I have lost in my own life by making this choice. I suspect many here did not choose that way, or even realize it was a choice while it was open to them.)
 
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GonnaBeADoc2222 said:
One of the most presumptuous statements I've seen on sdn this month lol
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Nah. Grew up military. Moving isn't that hard. I'm not saying that it's always fun, or emotionally easy, or lots of things. But hard it is not.

And for the record, I'm not judging anybody who doesn't move. Everyone has a choice they can make. But be honest. You can move whenever you want. You might not want to for lots of reasons, But that doesn't mean you can't. Just that you don't.
 
Another delight of being a CMG travel doc is that should there be any complaint from RNs, consultants, patients, admins etc you may be tossed under the bus without a thought by your corporate overlords...after all, you're the temporary cog and your local leadership won't feel much loyalty to you since they know you'll be leaving soon anyway.
 
namethatsmell said:
Another delight of being a CMG travel doc is that should there be any complaint from RNs, consultants, patients, admins etc you may be tossed under the bus without a thought by your corporate overlords...after all, you're the temporary cog and your local leadership won't feel much loyalty to you since they know you'll be leaving soon anyway.
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Right. Has happened to me. They won't tell you anything, they just won't schedule you. I had to actually ask, when the schedule came out once and I wasn't on it. They said "Oh yeah, the site just told us not to schedule you there anymore".
 
namethatsmell said:
Another delight of being a CMG travel doc is that should there be any complaint from RNs, consultants, patients, admins etc you may be tossed under the bus without a thought by your corporate overlords...after all, you're the temporary cog and your local leadership won't feel much loyalty to you since they know you'll be leaving soon anyway.
Click to expand...
Nope never happened to me.
 
Dr.McNinja said:
Moving isn't that hard. I'm not saying that it's always fun, or emotionally easy, or lots of things. But hard it is not.
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You literally just said "here are a bunch of things that make this hard, but it isn't hard." Yes, it isn't physically terribly challenging (although that in of itself is also debatable) but in most cases having an attachment to a geographic area for one reason or another makes moving hard. When you grow up without a geographic home base, a la the military family style you alluded to, it certainly gets easier.

All of that said, if the only jobs in my geographic region (which I happen to love and do not want to leave ever) paid $170/hr... we'd be packing our bags.
 
BoardingDoc said:
You literally just said "here are a bunch of things that make this hard, but it isn't hard."
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Ok, I might have been playing the semantics. But honestly, moving simply means being willing to say "welp, time to go". The rest all falls into place.

All of that said, if the only jobs in my geographic region (which I happen to love and do not want to leave ever) paid $170/hr... we'd be packing our bags.
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I've got it a little more difficult, as my wife's job actually makes a fair amount more here than most other places. Like, 90%+ of them. So I have to make a more complicated decision.

However, this balanced bill thing going through committee may serve the death knell.
 
MechEDoc said:
Absolutely happens. I have seen it happen to others and experienced it myself.
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Often happens at HCA facilities which often need staff. And you got the door to doc time elevated or some other foolishness.
 
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