Private Practice Psychiatry

[Bounty]

Hi everyone
I am a third year with no idea what i want to go into so I am looking at every rotation as a potential future career...
I'm on psych right now, rotating in an inpatient county facility. I really enjoy it there but I am having a hard time imagining what life as a private practice pyschiatrist would be like. (I figure, like in other fields, most graduates end up in private practice...is this true?)
Can anyone here who is going into private practice or knows more about it enlighten me? Can people specialize in seeing certain disorders without a specific fellowship? Is it hard to find jobs? What is the average day like? What types of patients see psychiatrists? Referrals from internists, etc?
Thanks so much!

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[OldPsychDoc]

Hi everyone
I am a third year with no idea what i want to go into so I am looking at every rotation as a potential future career...
I'm on psych right now, rotating in an inpatient county facility. I really enjoy it there but I am having a hard time imagining what life as a private practice pyschiatrist would be like. (I figure, like in other fields, most graduates end up in private practice...is this true?)
Can anyone here who is going into private practice or knows more about it enlighten me? Can people specialize in seeing certain disorders without a specific fellowship? Is it hard to find jobs? What is the average day like? What types of patients see psychiatrists? Referrals from internists, etc?
Thanks so much!

Welcome aboard--glad you're enjoying psych.

The nice thing about psych is that you can do pretty much whatever you are comfortable with. If by "private practice" you mean having an office by yourself in the community, that would be rarer than you think. But if you mean "private sector" as in not government, not academic--well, that is most of us. Lots of my friends do a little of this, a little of that--they'll be hospital based 80% of their time and have an outpatient clinic on the side, or they'll work for a county CMH agency on salary part time and consult to a multispecialty group, etc. THe permutations are endless...

I'm in "corporate" private practice--that is, I have a salaried job in a large multi-specialty group. I like the security, benefits, and regularity of the job. I put in about 30 hours a week in inpatient and 15-20 hours of outpatient. I'm a generalist, so I take all comers--mostly depression and anxiety from the community, but LOTS of substance abuse, and some psychosis. Referrals come from all sources--primary care in our group, self-referrals, post-hospital discharge, etc. After a time you get a "reputation"--like "Oh that OldPsychDoc, he's really good with my depressed chronic pain patients who are using WAY too many narcotics..." or "Anasazi--that doc is GREAT with psychotic traumatized vets" --so some of us choose specialties, others have "specialties" thrust upon us. You don't NEED to do "pain" or "trauma" fellowships to have these "specialties", for example. I did do an addiction psych fellowship, so I get a lot of those referrals.

Good luck!

 

[Bounty]

Welcome aboard--glad you're enjoying psych.

The nice thing about psych is that you can do pretty much whatever you are comfortable with. If by "private practice" you mean having an office by yourself in the community, that would be rarer than you think. But if you mean "private sector" as in not government, not academic--well, that is most of us. Lots of my friends do a little of this, a little of that--they'll be hospital based 80% of their time and have an outpatient clinic on the side, or they'll work for a county CMH agency on salary part time and consult to a multispecialty group, etc. THe permutations are endless...

I'm in "corporate" private practice--that is, I have a salaried job in a large multi-specialty group. I like the security, benefits, and regularity of the job. I put in about 30 hours a week in inpatient and 15-20 hours of outpatient. I'm a generalist, so I take all comers--mostly depression and anxiety from the community, but LOTS of substance abuse, and some psychosis. Referrals come from all sources--primary care in our group, self-referrals, post-hospital discharge, etc. After a time you get a "reputation"--like "Oh that OldPsychDoc, he's really good with my depressed chronic pain patients who are using WAY too many narcotics..." or "Anasazi--that doc is GREAT with psychotic traumatized vets" --so some of us choose specialties, others have "specialties" thrust upon us. You don't NEED to do "pain" or "trauma" fellowships to have these "specialties", for example. I did do an addiction psych fellowship, so I get a lot of those referrals.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info OldPsychDoc! Seems like there are a lot of options in psych...

 

[psychtobe]

I have a few questions:

1. OK, so I've decided to go into private practice.
2. First, I need to find an office: how many sq ft is considered adequate for a new psychiatrist starting out? --the hope being a single psychiatrist possibly subleasing to another part-time psychiatrist
3. my concerns also involve safety issues being alone in practice --how do private psychiatrists deal with this?
4. do private patients prefer stand alone offices that aren't near medical centers? or being in a medical office building? privacy issues --it may not even matter?
   

ok that's it for now - really wanting to know

• layout of the office space

• the minimum amount of space needed

thanks in advance for any advice/thoughts

 

[Lauraaa]

I was hoping any psychiatrists in private practice or residents planning to go into private practice in the LA area could comment on the ease of finding positions in group private practice in the LA area. In particular I'm wondering if a recent graduate who trained outside LA would have more trouble getting into a group private practice position than one who trained at UCLA or Cedars.

Thanks so much in advance for any information!

Laura