Life of an Ortho Surgeon

[collegefreak12]

How is the life of an ortho surgeon? I am speaking in terms of work hours/ week, pay, and call. Also, how much insurance (malpractice) do they pay on average? Would 50% of your paycheck be too much, or about right for orthos? Thanks.

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[sashie19]

The guy I just shadowed said he pays about 50k per year in malpractice.

 

[Tired]

How is the life of an ortho surgeon? I am speaking in terms of work hours/ week, pay, and call. Also, how much insurance (malpractice) do they pay on average? Would 50% of your paycheck be too much, or about right for orthos? Thanks.

This is so highly variable depending on your fellowship specialty, location, and types of patients in your practice, that there's really no answer. Go get a copy of Iserson's and read it. Ask around to the docs you work with. Look online for malpractice rates by state and specialty. You have to narrow down your question for it to really be relevant to anything.

There may be no such thing as a stupid question, but you're starting to come close.

 

[collegefreak12]

Uh, ok. Lets say for one who works at Yale New Haven Hospital. Thats in CT...

 

[Tired]

Uh, ok. Lets say for one who works at Yale New Haven Hospital. Thats in CT...

You want to know about the lifestyle, work hours, call, and malpractice insurance for an Orthopod at Yale-New Haven?

Oh my God, I can't even begin to fathom why you would ask a question like this. . .

Try asking one of them, you'll get better info.

 

[collegefreak12]

Yeah...why don't I just go up to a stranger and ask how much he makes, what his hours are, and how much he pays for malpractice...

 

[Tired]

Yeah...why don't I just go up to a stranger and ask how much he makes, what his hours are, and how much he pays for malpractice...

Once you make it med school, you will discover that it is not only acceptable, but expected, that you ask questions like this of your attendings.

 

[RxnMan]

Yeah...why don't I just go up to a stranger and ask how much he makes, what his hours are, and how much he pays for malpractice...

Well, he or she is your teacher, and their job is to educate you, and they'll tell you even more if you show interest in their field.

There are many factors that come into play on money for any doc - area of country, practice type/structure, academic vs private - you need to ask a lot of people what they get and the choices they made that influence their paycheck.

 

[cdql]

Work hours = 20/week

Pay = $2,000,000/year

Call = Never

Malpractice insurance = $0.50

I'm glad you're asking all the right questions as a premed. You are gonna be awesome during the interview trail.

 

[Tired]

Work hours = 20/week

Pay = $2,000,000/year

Call = Never

Malpractice insurance = $0.50

I'm glad you're asking all the right questions as a premed. You are gonna be awesome during the interview trail.

It's just a troll. Two weeks ago he asked the exact same questions on the Gen Surg forum. Folks like this never cut it in Ortho, so no point wasting your breath on him.

 

[collegefreak12]

It's just a troll. Two weeks ago he asked the exact same questions on the Gen Surg forum. Folks like this never cut it in Ortho, so no point wasting your breath on him.

That wasn't nice...I was just asking a question. But I will be the bigger man and apologize, cause I don't want to get into a silly internet war.

 

[Tired]

That wasn't nice...I was just asking a question. But I will be the bigger man and apologize, cause I don't want to get into a silly internet war.

I'm not trying to be insulting, I'm just pointing out that you have a habit of asking the same question about different specialties in different forums.

Also, in the aforementioned thread, when other posters suggested you do a little research, you replied that it was just easier to post the question. That doesn't exactly inspire helpful instincts in other posters here.

 

[hans19]

That wasn't nice...I was just asking a question. But I will be the bigger man and apologize, cause I don't want to get into a silly internet war.

Just like in real life, its tacky to ask these questions of an absolute stranger, even if it is anonymous.

Do some homework on your own, demonstrate genuine interest... then ask some real questions. People will be more than willing to help you.

With the advent of google, you have no excuse for not being able to find a lot of this information on your own. If you want to be successful in a surgery residency, med school, or even in life, you have to be a self-starter. You can't expect to be spoonfed until you're 30.

 

[collegefreak12]

I agree with you on that...but the thing is, google isn't really truthful (like FREIDA). I don't want the organization to tell me, I want the truth, from residents/ attendings. The truth is hard to get online...

 

[hans19]

I agree with you on that...but the thing is, google isn't really truthful (like FREIDA). I don't want the organization to tell me, I want the truth, from residents/ attendings. The truth is hard to get online...

You want the truth?

 

[hans19]

I agree with you on that...but the thing is, google isn't really truthful (like FREIDA). I don't want the organization to tell me, I want the truth, from residents/ attendings. The truth is hard to get online...

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!

 

[collegefreak12]

I was wondering, would it make a difference if you do a fellowship...like in hand surgery?

 

[RxnMan]

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!

OP - Check out here , which happens to be both the first thing I found on Google and not from "the establishment." Fellowships, like any other part of any doctor's training, will probably change your income. Note that you may not get more $$$ for your training, but you will get to specialize.

 

[ice_23]

Even if this guy is a troll, I'm not sure if his asking these questions on the SDN ortho board is wholly inappropriate. I'm also intrigued by the amount of malpractice insurance/hours per week that orthopedic surgeons have during their work, and those things only actual surgeons/residents/some medical students would know. It just so happens that SDN is a place where many of these types of individuals would congregate.

We shouldn't be pushing people away just because they wish to know these sorts of statistics. I think medicine is the only field that comes to mind where asking about hours of work and salary are actively looked down upon. That's a shame because it's part of the reason why doctors have been losing much of their financial independence; we seem to think forethought about compensation is a bad thing.

-Ice

P.S. Like I said, this guy may be a troll, but others who posit this question might actually be asking with sincerity.

 

[collegefreak12]

Even if this guy is a troll, I'm not sure if his asking these questions on the SDN ortho board is wholly inappropriate. I'm also intrigued by the amount of malpractice insurance/hours per week that orthopedic surgeons have during their work, and those things only actual surgeons/residents/some medical students would know. It just so happens that SDN is a place where many of these types of individuals would congregate.

We shouldn't be pushing people away just because they wish to know these sorts of statistics. I think medicine is the only field that comes to mind where asking about hours of work and salary are actively looked down upon. That's a shame because it's part of the reason why doctors have been losing much of their financial independence; we seem to think forethought about compensation is a bad thing.

-Ice

P.S. Like I said, this guy may be a troll, but others who posit this question might actually be asking with sincerity.

I don't know weather to thank you or get angrry...Let me ponder that for a while....

 

[cdql]

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

 

[southpawcannon]

This kid's being a tool. That would be like me having a sit-down with a cop over some coffee and doughnuts in Hickville, USA and asking him what the average rate of homicides in Los Angeles are.

 

[PediBoneDoc]

so now now kids ... throwing stones back and forth is not nice ...

i am an orthopod so i will answer to the lifestyle issue ..

many of you look at the field as if it is a regular job and you get a "salary" ... well unfortunately it is not like that ... you most practices today (even academic) you income is performance based ...

so lets talk about private ... "You eat what you kill" ... that means, the harder you work, the more you make ... work 40 hrs a week .... less money ... 80hrs more money .... now this varies based on your payor mix and your overhead (malpractice, rent for office space, salaries for nurse, secretary, biller, etc) ... in general your overhead will be 40-60% of you collections .. oh now i have to explain collections ... collections are what you actually collect (insurance pays) .. so you may bill $100 but only collect $50, depending on the insurance ... private practice is your business and you have to run it that way ... take a month off, your billing stops ... now i am getting winded so i am not going to go into the different types of practices and types of call ....

in academics, it is no longer straight salary are most institutions ... it has gone to a base salary and the a performance bonus .... similar to private ...

i think you have to look at what life style you want and tailor your practice to that life style ... if you want to work less, you will make less ... there is no gravy train and all the specialties have this problem ... we just tend to get paid a bit more for our procedures ....

hope this helps somewhat

 

[Tired]

so now now kids ... throwing stones back and forth is not nice ...

i am an orthopod so i will answer to the lifestyle issue ..

many of you look at the field as if it is a regular job and you get a "salary" ... well unfortunately it is not like that ... you most practices today (even academic) you income is performance based ...

so lets talk about private ... "You eat what you kill" ... that means, the harder you work, the more you make ... work 40 hrs a week .... less money ... 80hrs more money .... now this varies based on your payor mix and your overhead (malpractice, rent for office space, salaries for nurse, secretary, biller, etc) ... in general your overhead will be 40-60% of you collections .. oh now i have to explain collections ... collections are what you actually collect (insurance pays) .. so you may bill $100 but only collect $50, depending on the insurance ... private practice is your business and you have to run it that way ... take a month off, your billing stops ... now i am getting winded so i am not going to go into the different types of practices and types of call ....

in academics, it is no longer straight salary are most institutions ... it has gone to a base salary and the a performance bonus .... similar to private ...

i think you have to look at what life style you want and tailor your practice to that life style ... if you want to work less, you will make less ... there is no gravy train and all the specialties have this problem ... we just tend to get paid a bit more for our procedures ....

hope this helps somewhat

You do realize that, aside from your patronizing opening sentence, you basically spent three paragraphs repeating what we all told the OP?

 

[PediBoneDoc]

i do like to throw stones from my high pedestal .... (just jokes) .... i guess i have to spell it out because sarcasm does not come through when writing ... don't want to patronize ...

i wrote what i did to confirm what was said from someone who lives it ... that's all ... give you some ammo i guess ....

thanks

 

[Tired]

i do like to throw stones from my high pedestal .... (just jokes) .... i guess i have to spell it out because sarcasm does not come through when writing ... don't want to patronize ...

i wrote what i did to confirm what was said from someone who lives it ... that's all ... give you some ammo i guess ....

thanks

I see. Gotta say, nice to have someone actually working in the field periodically posting here. The damn place is ghost-town half the time.