Private practice on-call?

[Redpointist]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Yea, I'm not in the dental profession or anything, just looking into it as a possible career someday, and thinking about majoring in pre-dentistry. I was wondering If dentists in a private practice have to be on-call after office hours.

I know this probably isnt the best forum to ask this as most of you are students or just getting started, but I figured you would all certainly know much more than me. Lemme know if there is a forum for currently practicing dentists or something, where this question would be more appropriate.

I'm just wondering about on-call hours, because thats something that has really made me avoid a medical career. I'm very active, and I'm rarely home on the weekends, and I really don't want to be tied down like that. When I'm not working, I don't want to have to worry about having to head back into an office, so would this be a problem as a general practicioner in private practice? Thanks

 

[rarm1]

You are responsible for your patients atleast morally and in some states legally. If they have to go to another doc on call they may never return... if they go to a emergency room and get a large bill they may never return. And upset patients sue... In this state - Delaware that law states you must have coverage for you practice... one reason group practice is a good idea.. or an agreement with others.

When we see a patiengt from a private practice at the hospital... or hear the answering machine refer all emergencies ... we report it to the state board... but that happens rarely.

Most "emergencies" just want reassurance... and you don't have to go in.

Delaware requires a hospital residency for experience with handling emergency care.

Yea, I'm not in the dental profession or anything, just looking into it as a possible career someday, and thinking about majoring in pre-dentistry. I was wondering If dentists in a private practice have to be on-call after office hours.

I know this probably isnt the best forum to ask this as most of you are students or just getting started, but I figured you would all certainly know much more than me. Lemme know if there is a forum for currently practicing dentists or something, where this question would be more appropriate.

I'm just wondering about on-call hours, because thats something that has really made me avoid a medical career. I'm very active, and I'm rarely home on the weekends, and I really don't want to be tied down like that. When I'm not working, I don't want to have to worry about having to head back into an office, so would this be a problem as a general practicioner in private practice? Thanks

 

[divertete]

In the area where I will likely practice (a small-ish town), all dentists are responsible primarily for their own emergencies. Many times the "emergency," as stated above, is as simple as giving reassurance or calling in a prescription. My dentist gives out his home number, and maybe receives 2-3 calls per week on evenings or weekends. For times when the dentist is out of town or unreachable, there is an area-wide dental service that patients can call (and all dentists participate in). The dentists rotate being on-call (wearing a pager) for 1 week every couple of months. Nobody is calling in the middle of the night, and the on-call practitioner might only receive a few extra calls per week... it's just nice for the patients to have a backup system.

 

[Redpointist]

My dream would be to work in Salt Lake City or Park City. I don't know anything about the number of dentists there already or anything, I just love the area. Skiing everywhere, and its really not that far from the city.

So in a more urban area like this there shouldn't be a problem rotating with other dentists then? As long as I don't have to be immediately available eeeevery weekend (or most weekends 😳 ) Maybe I could just get a satilite phone so that I could at least provide that reassurance youve talked about and call in percriptions and such even when I'm not covered by a cell phone, haha. Thanks for all your input so far.

 

[Dutchboy]

My dream would be to work in Salt Lake City or Park City. I don't know anything about the number of dentists there already or anything, I just love the area..

Where do you live now? Sorry to burst your bubble but SLC and Park City are REALLY saturated. I live hear and will leave the state for that reason. It seems every dental school has 10 or more Mormons and 90% are planning on coming back to Utah.

 

[DrJeff]

On-call for my practice is really quite simple. My cell phone # is on our practices answering machine, and my partner has his home phone # on the answering machine. So if a patient needs to get a hold of one of us, they call us directly. On average I get maybe 2 calls a month, and of those 25 or so a year, I'll end up actually having to go into the office maybe 2 or 3 times. The rest can usually be handled either with some reassurance over the phone or a simple call to the pharmacist.

Even if I'm away for the weekend, I'll often still be on-call (especially if I'm in a Verizon network area), and yes I have over the years a couple of times, stopped while skiing, taken out my cell phone and handled patients phone calls from the ski slopes, and come to think of it, also on my friends water ski boat.

If I'm really going away on vacation, or to an event where I can't/don't want to be disturbed, then my partner will caver the entire office and vise versa. If we're both going to be out of town at the same time (i.e. a big dental meeting), then we arange for one of the other practices in town to cover for us, and vise versa.

 

[Redpointist]

Ah, thats too bad about SLC. I figured it might already have 1,000,000 dentists but hadnt looked into that yet. Anyone know anything about the area around Colorado ski resorts? 😀 . And on call dentistry looks to be a totally different creature than that of medical fields. What I've seen of it so far sounds like a perfectly resonable responsibility, and not overbearing at all.