Private Practice vs Academic Setting

[rantf86]

What are the pros and cons of working in a private practice group as a radiologist or working in an academic environment?

What is the difference in compensation?

What is the difference in lifestyle and workload?

What is the difference in variety of what you do on a day to day basis?

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[hans19]

What are the pros and cons of working in a private practice group as a radiologist or working in an academic environment?

What is the difference in compensation?

What is the difference in lifestyle and workload?

What is the difference in variety of what you do on a day to day basis?

These are generalizations, but in private practice the volume is greater, the lifestyle is worse, the cases are less varied but the pay is much more.

You will find exceptions here and there and in-between situations, but for the most part thats how it is.

 

[MrBurns10]

the lifestyle is worse

Can you explain why this is? I just figured that in private practice you could work out when you want to work (and where, e.g. home) and if you have a big enough group, call isn't too frequent. Plus, you get a lot more vacation time it seems (at least this was my understanding). On the other hand, in academics, you have teaching and research responsibilities in addition to your clinical duties. Am I totally off?

 

[colbgw02]

A private practice will expect much more of you on a day-to-day basis. Remember, you're not working just for yourself; the practice will expect you to produce a certain amount. I think I've seen numbers where an academic radiologists reads about 7-8K less studies per year than a private practice radiologists. Plus, there are no residents to "pre-read". Academic radiologists are typically given dedicated work time for their research as well.

 

[DrDre311]

Can you explain why this is? I just figured that in private practice you could work out when you want to work (and where, e.g. home) and if you have a big enough group, call isn't too frequent. Plus, you get a lot more vacation time it seems (at least this was my understanding). On the other hand, in academics, you have teaching and research responsibilities in addition to your clinical duties. Am I totally off?

You could work less, but you'd make less money. When my dad was trying to cut back on his hours as he got closer to retirement he always compared it to being "chained to a silver spoon." That is, he wanted to work less, but it was very difficult to give up the income that he would lose by not working a full schedule. Even if you joined a private practice so that you could control your hours, you'd probably end up working just as much as your partners because the lure of increased income would be pretty strong (and the group would expect a certain level of productivity)--no matter how much you make, you can always find a justification for wanting more.

 

[skywalker84]

You could work less, but you'd make less money. When my dad was trying to cut back on his hours as he got closer to retirement he always compared it to being "chained to a silver spoon." That is, he wanted to work less, but it was very difficult to give up the income that he would lose by not working a full schedule. Even if you joined a private practice so that you could control your hours, you'd probably end up working just as much as your partners because the lure of increased income would be pretty strong (and the group would expect a certain level of productivity)--no matter how much you make, you can always find a justification for wanting more.

That's interesting, you would think the less life he had to live, the less important money would be.

 

[DrDre311]

That's interesting, you would think the less life he had to live, the less important money would be.

Well, when you're 61 with 4 twentysomething kids either in college or professional school (i.e. still on the payroll), and supporting your wife as well as your increasingly sick mother, it's hard to cut back.

It's not like Dad just couldn't pass on buying that new boat or third Porsche.

None of us can say how we would react in a situation where you could either make 200K for working 40 hrs/wk when you could easily clear upwards of 450K just by working 60 hrs/wk. Those 20 hours would probably seem like a lot less of a big deal with another 250K available...in fact, that 250K might just chain you to that full schedule for your entire career.