North Star

[Twiggidy]

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Anyone have info on this company? I see some job postings with their name attached and was wondering if anyone had inside info. PM me if you want


Sorry if this has been addressed in another thread.

 

[gasdoc77]

Anyone have info on this company? I see some job postings with their name attached and was wondering if anyone had inside info. PM me if you want


Sorry if this has been addressed in another thread.

I've only heard negatives. Can't speak from experience though.

 

[NightNight]

I made a thread not too long ago asking about them as well. Very negative responses, even some unsolicited PMs warning me off. FWIW.

 

[Twiggidy]

Cool guys. Thanks for the input. Got some good PMs too. Appreciate it

 

[RussianJoo]

I work for them, typical AMC but they pay slightly above average for the area. I think it depends on which practice you join they have some groups where you do your own cases in Texas. Otherwise everything is really based on the individual group. Schedules and workload is all done internally, northstar just signs your check.

 

[RussianJoo]

People on here are mostly very anti-AMC so they will put down all AMC groups. But in reality I bet a good majority of people on here work for one they just don't want to admit it and in many parts of the country this is your only option.

 

[bigdan]

RJ -

You did ICU fellowship, right? Are you doing any critical care with them?

 

[deleted162650]

Anyone have info on this company? I see some job postings with their name attached and was wondering if anyone had inside info. PM me if you want


Sorry if this has been addressed in another thread.

Are you relocating? I didn't think there was much Northstar (or any other AMC) presence in your neck of the woods - aside from that one big aquisition?

 

[Twiggidy]

Are you relocating? I didn't think there was much Northstar (or any other AMC) presence in your neck of the woods - aside from that one big aquisition?

saw something with potential in another location. always open to a new opportunity. my job is good but a lot of aspects could be better so it keeps me looking

 

[RussianJoo]

RJ -

You did ICU fellowship, right? Are you doing any critical care with them?

Yes, I round in the SICU. I teach residents in both the OR and SICU, take OB call, do regional anesthesia including catheters. In terms of practice it provides a great variety and acuity, which is great coming out of residency/fellowship.

 

[chocomorsel]

saw something with potential in another location. always open to a new opportunity. my job is good but a lot of aspects could be better so it keeps me looking

I have had friends who worked for NorthStar. They say that honestly, the MD/DOs are expendable. They care a lot more about the CRNAs. The CRNAs run the show and the docs are just paper monkeys. Not a good look. I would look at other AMCs that really value the ACT relationship. Some even let the docs work alone without nurses.

 

[deleted171991]

Some even let the docs work alone without nurses.

You mean without supervision? Must be some really good docs. 😀

 

[aneftp]

People on here are mostly very anti-AMC so they will put down all AMC groups. But in reality I bet a good majority of people on here work for one they just don't want to admit it and in many parts of the country this is your only option.

It depends on the staffing levels.

It can become a death spiral if an AMC can't recruit enough people and locums cannot fill the void

Those groups who have "sold out" generally are adequately staffed....cause duh. 80-90% of the partners are FORCED to stay. So if they can plug the 1-3 extra MDs needed in. They are fine.

Its the AMCs which take over a place which causes mass exodus of docs...those are the ones u can get screwed at.

 

[chocomorsel]

You mean without supervision? Must be some really good docs. 😀

Haha. Those practices still do exist. They may be dinosaurs, soon to be extinct however. I for one am gonna enjoy not supervising as long as I can.

 

[pgg]

I briefly had a moonlighting job with Northstar. It was a supervision job signing charts for CRNAs in an ASC that had no rules. Well, I guess they had one rule: "We'll do any case here." It made me very anxious. The surgeons were clearly very, very used to pushing the anesthesiologist preop monkey around. I quit.

 

[Scotty_G]

How can you supervise residents? How can an ACGME residency have an AMC running anesthesia?! Don't tell me you went to Lubbock RJ?!?! Say it isn't so 🙁

 

[pgg]

How can you supervise residents? How can an ACGME residency have an AMC running anesthesia?! Don't tell me you went to Lubbock RJ?!?! Say it isn't so 🙁

I spent some time between residency and fellowship working.

 

[deleted643396]

How can you supervise residents? How can an ACGME residency have an AMC running anesthesia?! Don't tell me you went to Lubbock RJ?!?! Say it isn't so 🙁

NAPA has a residency.

 

[jwk]

I have had friends who worked for NorthStar. They say that honestly, the MD/DOs are expendable. They care a lot more about the CRNAs. The CRNAs run the show and the docs are just paper monkeys. Not a good look. I would look at other AMCs that really value the ACT relationship. Some even let the docs work alone without nurses.

That's what happens when one of the two primary owners is a CRNA.

 

[gasdoc77]

OK this just in. Spoke with a buddy from back in residency who works for a group in Louisville, KY. He says Northstar has made a hostile bid against his practice but apparently his group is just an arm of their own "mega group." Non-competes are about to be enforced and this large hospital system could get shut down entirely!!! I can't wait to find out how this goes down! Apparently it's the suits against the suits.

 

[deleted87051]

Non-competes are about to be enforced and this large hospital system could get shut down entirely!!! I can't wait to find out how this goes down! Apparently it's the suits against the suits.

Unlikely. Has any large hospital system ever been shut down because of anesthesia? People will cave, noncompetes will be violated, business as usual. Often the only way to enforce noncompetes is by withholding accounts receivable. That's not much leverage.

 

[jwk]

Unlikely. Has any large hospital system ever been shut down because of anesthesia? People will cave, noncompetes will be violated, business as usual. Often the only way to enforce noncompetes is by withholding accounts receivable. That's not much leverage.

Or court order.

 

[deleted126335]

Unlikely. Has any large hospital system ever been shut down because of anesthesia? People will cave, noncompetes will be violated, business as usual. Often the only way to enforce noncompetes is by withholding accounts receivable. That's not much leverage.

Not that I am aware of. Noncompetes are in some cases enforceable. I am aware of two hospital systems that decided to fight the docs and chose not to violate their noncompetes and paid big bucks for locums on short notice. Noncompetes are enforceable in some cases and if the hospitals try to violate, the anesthesia groups would have moved for emergency injunctions enjoining the hospital from doing so which would (probably) have been upheld.

Again this varies hugely based on state law and even within states. Many times noncompetes are not enforceable or at best might be enforceable and you are gambling millions of dollars and multiple careers and relocations on what an individual judge MIGHT decide.

 

[Scotty_G]

Yes the Napa thing is weird, but they also started a new medical school on LI (Hofstra) which is also associated with the residency. Also NAPA was always supplying anesthesia to most of the NS-LIJ hospitals. In the case of Lubbock wasn't it an academic institution which then was bought by Northstar?

 

[RussianJoo]

How can you supervise residents? How can an ACGME residency have an AMC running anesthesia?! Don't tell me you went to Lubbock RJ?!?! Say it isn't so 🙁

No, I am not in Texas. We have a pain and peds fellowships too... It is what it is, as long as the pay is good I don't really care who my boss is. I have bills to pay and a family to raise.

 

[RussianJoo]

OK this just in. Spoke with a buddy from back in residency who works for a group in Louisville, KY. He says Northstar has made a hostile bid against his practice but apparently his group is just an arm of their own "mega group." Non-competes are about to be enforced and this large hospital system could get shut down entirely!!! I can't wait to find out how this goes down! Apparently it's the suits against the suits.

This is how Northstar took over the hospital where I am. The current groups contract was not renewed and Northstar won the bid. Most of the anesthesiologists wanted to stay and work for the hospital system since they build their homes there, the old group tried to enforce the non-competes and in the end agreed on a settlement. Northstar bigwigs said that even if they didn't settle with that group a judge would not enforce the non-competes because this is a major hospital in an "underserved" community and the court would not allow for patient care and safety to suffer. The old group that lost the contract didn't have the need/space to relocate all the anesthesiologists to their other locations thus those anesthesiologists would technically be fired. Now if the group had needs in other hospital systems and relocated every anesthesiologist or could afford to pay the anesthesiologists to sit at home and not work then maybe Northstar would be in trouble and would give up the contract because it wouldn't be financaially possible to replace everyone with locums. So this is familiar waters for Northstar.