Hospitalist job interview

[Neckdeepinproblems]

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Hello all

I have a full time hospitalist job interview scheduled in 2 days..I went through all the routine questions like tell me about yourself, strengths, weakness but wanted to know if I should go over more questions but dont know which ones..I am very interested in this job and dont want to miss out on this.can anyone suggest any tips on how to ace the interview.thank you

 

[gutonc]

Show up.
Don't swear at the people interviewing you.
Don't vomit or pee on yourself during the interview.

Seriously, you've made it into med school and then into residency. This is easiest interview you're going to have.

 

[obiwan]

Hello all

I have a full time hospitalist job interview scheduled in 2 days..I went through all the routine questions like tell me about yourself, strengths, weakness but wanted to know if I should go over more questions but dont know which ones..I am very interested in this job and dont want to miss out on this.can anyone suggest any tips on how to ace the interview.thank you

In all honesty, I wouldn't even consider it an interview. The most important thing for you is to gauge if this is a group that you can work with in terms of the work logistics and trying to get a feel for your potential colleagues.

 

[FutureInternist]

Hello all

I have a full time hospitalist job interview scheduled in 2 days..I went through all the routine questions like tell me about yourself, strengths, weakness but wanted to know if I should go over more questions but dont know which ones..I am very interested in this job and dont want to miss out on this.can anyone suggest any tips on how to ace the interview.thank you

Questions you should ask -

1) Is ICU open or closed?
2) Do you have to do procedures?
3) Average patient census (and add 2-3 to what they tell you)?
4) How are overnight pts distributed? Even, so everyone, regardless of census, gets same # of pts, or does everyone get "topped up" to the same number of pts? - if its the latter then people will tend to hand out to pts and then do mass d/c's on their last day
5) How long are you expected to stay in house? (Our shift ends at 6 pm but can leave any time as long as we answer pages)
6) Do you call consults yourself or is there a secretary for it?
7) Are there unit based rounds to get nurses, PT, Speech and Case Management all on the same page regarding the pts

Good luck

 

[RadOncDoc21]

Hello all

I have a full time hospitalist job interview scheduled in 2 days..I went through all the routine questions like tell me about yourself, strengths, weakness but wanted to know if I should go over more questions but dont know which ones..I am very interested in this job and dont want to miss out on this.can anyone suggest any tips on how to ace the interview.thank you

Ask them about salary and vacation and make sure you hold your ground. I think starting salary avg is around 500k and 10 weeks vacation. Just remember, they need you more than you need them and if they say no, it might be wise to follow someone else's advice!

 

[sluggs]

Questions you should ask -

1) Is ICU open or closed?
2) Do you have to do procedures?
3) Average patient census (and add 2-3 to what they tell you)?
4) How are overnight pts distributed? Even, so everyone, regardless of census, gets same # of pts, or does everyone get "topped up" to the same number of pts? - if its the latter then people will tend to hand out to pts and then do mass d/c's on their last day
5) How long are you expected to stay in house? (Our shift ends at 6 pm but can leave any time as long as we answer pages)
6) Do you call consults yourself or is there a secretary for it?
7) Are there unit based rounds to get nurses, PT, Speech and Case Management all on the same page regarding the pts

Good luck

Question in re: above, #6

How would you have a secretary call a consult.
When I was a resident, we learned how to call a consult-- how to give a consultant a meaningful picture of the patient and ask an intelligent question. How would you have a secretary be able to do this and also be able to answer any question the consultant might have?
As a consultant, I would not accept a secretary calling me to consult on a patient. Period.

 

[pulmoblast]

Question in re: above, #6

How would you have a secretary call a consult.
When I was a resident, we learned how to call a consult-- how to give a consultant a meaningful picture of the patient and ask an intelligent question. How would you have a secretary be able to do this and also be able to answer any question the consultant might have?
As a consultant, I would not accept a secretary calling me to consult on a patient. Period.

You would go running to see the consult in private practice even if the janitor called


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[sluggs]

You would go running to see the consult in private practice even if the janitor called


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

The beauty of a hospital-employed intensivist... I don't run for nobody cept' the sick patient!

 

[dhavalp]

Question in re: above, #6

How would you have a secretary call a consult.
When I was a resident, we learned how to call a consult-- how to give a consultant a meaningful picture of the patient and ask an intelligent question. How would you have a secretary be able to do this and also be able to answer any question the consultant might have?
As a consultant, I would not accept a secretary calling me to consult on a patient. Period.

Makes sense for a critical care consult or anything stat/urgent to be called personally by the requesting physician but I don't think its efficient use of time for a hospitalist to personally call every single routine consult.

 

[visari]

I think starting salary avg is around 500k and 10 weeks vacation.

I think there's a typo (or two) here

 

[Successor12]

I think there's a typo (or two) here

I'd go with two. LOL

 

[nlax30]

Question in re: above, #6

How would you have a secretary call a consult.
When I was a resident, we learned how to call a consult-- how to give a consultant a meaningful picture of the patient and ask an intelligent question. How would you have a secretary be able to do this and also be able to answer any question the consultant might have?
As a consultant, I would not accept a secretary calling me to consult on a patient. Period.

The secretary just calls the consult into the practice's service with whatever reason the referring doc listed in the order.....

For a stat consult or situation that requires some specific attention or nuance then yea, there should be a physician to physician call, but for routine consults in a private practice/community setting I've never seen a physician "call" in a consult.

 

[sluggs]

Completely pathetic. A hospitalist should be able to handle "routine" internal medicine issues. If something needs a consult it needs a call. This is why hospitalists are becoming glorified social workers!

 

[rokshana]

Question in re: above, #6

How would you have a secretary call a consult.
When I was a resident, we learned how to call a consult-- how to give a consultant a meaningful picture of the patient and ask an intelligent question. How would you have a secretary be able to do this and also be able to answer any question the consultant might have?
As a consultant, I would not accept a secretary calling me to consult on a patient. Period.

in many of the community hospitals, this is exactly what happens...the ward clerk will call in the consult...if you actually need to talk to the doctor, then you can alway page him/her.

 

[rokshana]

Completely pathetic. A hospitalist should be able to handle "routine" internal medicine issues. If something needs a consult it needs a call. This is why hospitalists are becoming glorified social workers!

have you worked as a hospitalist?
doesn't seem like you know how the job works...but every hospitalist is different...some where trained with that philosophy and deal with a low enough census to be able to do everything, but there are some *cough* many *cough* places, that the census is in the 20-30 range and they farm out a lot (as an inpt endo, i have gotten plenty of consults from the hospitalist service for glucose management that a 3rd yr medical student can do...).

 

[RadOncDoc21]

I think there's a typo (or two) here

Shoot for the stars! 🙂

 

[CCM-MD]

Ask them about salary and vacation and make sure you hold your ground. I think starting salary avg is around 500k and 10 weeks vacation. Just remember, they need you more than you need them and if they say no, it might be wise to follow someone else's advice!

I think there's a typo (or two) here

300k and 26 weeks off is happening. 500k and 10 weeks off is probably possible...

 

[sluggs]

have you worked as a hospitalist?
doesn't seem like you know how the job works...but every hospitalist is different...some where trained with that philosophy and deal with a low enough census to be able to do everything, but there are some *cough* many *cough* places, that the census is in the 20-30 range and they farm out a lot (as an inpt endo, i have gotten plenty of consults from the hospitalist service for glucose management that a 3rd yr medical student can do...).

Our profession is in disarray-- we are losing public trust, becoming "workers" rather than professionals, and then we complain that our reimbursements are shrinking. We need to not participate in the features of the medical system that are doing this to us. If you are boarded in IM or FP and you take a job where you are "too busy" to manage glucose, you contribute to our disrepute.
Stand up and be doctors!
Rokshana-- do you like consults for routing blood sugar management, or do you just do them to make a living? I am not asking to criticize you but to really understand.

 

[FutureInternist]

Completely pathetic. A hospitalist should be able to handle "routine" internal medicine issues. If something needs a consult it needs a call. This is why hospitalists are becoming glorified social workers!

Things that I don't need to talk to the consultant for :

Nephro consult for routine HD in an ESRD pt.

Cardio consult for new onset CHF with echo shwoing RWMA.

ID consult for septic joint, since outpt ID clinic requires inpt consult before they agree to see them for antibx x 6 weeks.

GI consult for GIB in an EtOH-er.

Neuro consult for CVA, since they want to see all CVA's so they can get certified as a stroke center.

Additionally they can always read my note for my thought process since a majority of time it takes them a while to call back and I have moved on to seeing other pts or family meetings etc

It goes w/o saying that complicated or stat consults be called in person but you can assume whatever you want from your perceived place at the top of the food chain while I will be going home at 2 pm

 

[rokshana]

Our profession is in disarray-- we are losing public trust, becoming "workers" rather than professionals, and then we complain that our reimbursements are shrinking. We need to not participate in the features of the medical system that are doing this to us. If you are boarded in IM or FP and you take a job where you are "too busy" to manage glucose, you contribute to our disrepute.
Stand up and be doctors!
Rokshana-- do you like consults for routing blood sugar management, or do you just do them to make a living? I am not asking to criticize you but to really understand.

i'm an endocrinologist...my clinic is 75-80% not diabetes (which i'm very happy about) and while you get some endocrine consults inpt (hypercalcemia, thyrotoxicosis, AI, etc) the vast majority of the consults are for sugar...some are complicated and difficult to control or pump pts or U-500 insulin needs but generally is a person who has diabetes being admitted for something else...they are part of the job and actually an easy Level II in the hospital.

 

[visari]

300k and 26 weeks off is happening. 500k and 10 weeks off is probably possible...

yes..anything is technically possible... but to say "average starting is 500K" is not true .. very far from being true actually

 

[visari]

not having to call the consultant for the consult and putting in an order electronically (or having the secretary call) is a new culture and is not limited to small busy community practices.

Do I prefer to be called with consults? Yes
Do I mind not being called for non-urgent consult? not really. as long as there's a clear question and a call back number in case I have questions. If I get a weird consult without a question and nobody calls me back, I don't see the consult until someone contacts me.

for 90% of consults, I don't need an intern to waste 15 minutes of my time with a long incoherent H&P that is not relevant to the problem I'm being asked to help with.
I think a lot of this started (at least at my institution) from the fact that consultants (mostly from surgical services but a couple of medical services too) were giving everyone who calls a hard time. Nobody with a census of 20 patients has time to argue over the phone with consultants giving push back on every consult.

 

[RadOncDoc21]

yes..anything is technically possible... but to say "average starting is 500K" is not true .. very far from being true actually

Man, my sarcasm was completely missed!

 

[futronius]

Our profession is in disarray-- we are losing public trust, becoming "workers" rather than professionals, and then we complain that our reimbursements are shrinking. We need to not participate in the features of the medical system that are doing this to us. If you are boarded in IM or FP and you take a job where you are "too busy" to manage glucose, you contribute to our disrepute.
Stand up and be doctors!
Rokshana-- do you like consults for routing blood sugar management, or do you just do them to make a living? I am not asking to criticize you but to really understand.

Yeah, you sound like you have very little insight on how real-life hospitalist groups function. Did you work in any capacity in private practice before moving on to fellowship? In the private practice/community hospitalist setting where the census is routinely 20+ and likely spread across multiple hospitals, it really isn't feasible to call individual answering services all day long for routine consults. It isn't manageable and doesn't add anything to patient care, and it detracts from productivity and your pay will be docked as a result. Not to mention that consultants will gladly do routine consults on insured patients. They could care less if you called them personally and gave them a 10min intern-level presentation. I worked in a large hospitalist group for two years being going on to fellowship and this is exactly how it worked.

 

[DoctwoB]

As a consultant I generally hate secretary called consults, because often I have no idea what the primary team wants. Our hospitalist inpatient notes are scant, to say the least, and don't contain the thought process leading to the consult. We are often left with the consult order, which may or may not contain the information we need and what the question or goal of the consult is. I much prefer being consulted by our teaching services.

That being said, it is a huge pain in the a** to call consults at some private hospitals. At our main hospital it's as easy as tell the operator to page service X and get a callback. At one of our private hospitals, you have to connect to their office, get put on hold, tell their secretary way too much information, and then may or may not get a call back.

 

[rokshana]

As a consultant I generally hate secretary called consults, because often I have no idea what the primary team wants. Our hospitalist inpatient notes are scant, to say the least, and don't contain the thought process leading to the consult. We are often left with the consult order, which may or may not contain the information we need and what the question or goal of the consult is. I much prefer being consulted by our teaching services.

That being said, it is a huge pain in the a** to call consults at some private hospitals. At our main hospital it's as easy as tell the operator to page service X and get a callback. At one of our private hospitals, you have to connect to their office, get put on hold, tell their secretary way too much information, and then may or may not get a call back.

eh, i hated it in the beginning too ( i was trained at a place that taught you to call in your consults yourself), but really are the majority of your consults that wacky that you need a lot of info? Mine are overwhelmingly...pt here for blah, blah, blah and has uncontrolled sugars with the occasional suppressed TSH or elevated TSH (or calcium) or broke a hip please come see for osteoporosis...rarely is the hospitalist's note going to give me the info I need so its not that big of a deal.