Pay for Call?

[odieoh]

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Do any of you all get compensated by a hospital for taking call? The community I'm in is going to have fewer ophthalmologists available for call soon, meaning more call for me. I understand that it is not unheard of to receive compensation for taking call. I currently do not. Any of you have experience with this?

 

[MullerCell]

Compensation for call should be typical. The patients you see often don't have insurance, won't follow up, and it is a big inconvenience to go in to the ER to see a single patient. In order to maintain trauma center status, hospitals have to have on call ophthalmology available. I would discuss how much you would like per day of call with the other ophthalmologists that have privileges at the hospital, then tell them to pay you, or else you all will walk.

 

[digitalsideburn]

It seems that many community hospitals do indeed require ophthalmologists to take general ophthalmology call in order to maintain surgical privileges at their hospital, but do not compensate the ophthalmologists for this. This is often shared among multiple docs, so isn't too burdensome. However, I do absolutely believe we should be compensated for taking call- receiving $200-300/night might be a fair amount depending on how busy it is.