Question about staff positions

Started by Revilla
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Revilla

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Forgive me invading your forum, but I tried to ask this question in pre-allo and no one really knew the answer. Can someone here explain this to me please?

One of the doctors at the hospital I volunteer at is also on-staff at a hospital about seven hours away in another state. How does that work? Does being on staff just mean you have admitting/surgical privileges (he's a surgeon) or does it mean you commute month-to-month? I'm not clear on the logistics of something like that. Any information is appreciated.
 
The reason you (and the PA crowd) are confused is that most people think that physicians are employed by hospitals. Some specialists are, many are not.

Many hospitals, especially community based ones, do not employ physicians at all. Physicians can be independently contracted and can have privileges at multiple hospitals (I have them at 5 hospitals and 2 surgicenters). Therefore, it is entirely possible for a surgeon to be on medical staff and have operating and admitting privileges without being responsible for rounding on other's patients, taking call, etc. I bring my patients to certain hospitals, they charge their fees to the patient and I charge my fees...there is no money from the hospital to me (in fact, I have to pay to be on staff).

Academic hospitals DO often employ physicians, and there is generally some teaching requirement as well as other clinical duties, making it hard to be 7 hours away such as in your example. I'd wager that your physician is either an adjunct faculty at an academic hospital with little clinical duties or is in the former category. I'm not sure why he would be on staff at a hospital 7 hrs away, but if he spend a significant part of his time in that community and has a practice there, it makes sense that he has privileges at a hospital in town.
 
Thank you for your reply! I think I understand it a little better now!
 
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Doowai said:
Can you give us an idea of a range it might cost to have hospital priveleges and be on staff?
Click to expand...

As I recall it's about $200-$300 for your initial application then it's between $50 and $150 for renewals which around here are every 2 years.

As a side note for specialties that have group practices such as EM my group pays my hospital fees but not my licences. Those benefits vary group to group and are negoiatable when you sign your contract.
 
The range above is about right. I think the most expensive place was $400 for the initial app, and the cheapest around $125 (but that was for an affiliate of a hospital I already have privs at, so it might be cheaper).

The renewals have been running me around $75. Even though they are supposed to be on 2 year cycles, apparently I came in the middle, so have to re-up. How's this for ridiculous:

one of the hospitals I got privileges at renews after 1 year for new staff physicians. They start 7 months early in case there are problems. (like what? I don't know.) So less than 5 months after I got privileges, I had to complete a whole new package. It was insane.
 
FYI - Many hospitals will require you to be on unreferred call to have priviledges as well. Unreferred often means uncompensated. So it doesn't always pay to have priviledges at multiple hospitals.

-The Trifling Jester
 
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