RVU Production for podiatrist?

[deleted1162946]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Again, I could pull up 20 people ony phone hospital employed making 350k plus a year right now

These people are pretty skilled as far as taking any trauma that comes in right? As much of these jobs are rural I feel like you most be competent in a lot of rearfoot/ankle trauma pathology.

I’d feel terrible having to try to fix a calc fx or pilon. personally

 

[air bud]

These people are pretty skilled as far as taking any trauma that comes in right? As much of these jobs are rural I feel like you most be competent in a lot of rearfoot/ankle trauma pathology.

I’d feel terrible having to try to fix a calc fx or pilon. personally

Yes. Well trained. Reality is most are not doing pilon and calcs not super common. Anyone in a bigger metro should be sending pilon to Ortho trauma. Too many pods try and plate stuff that should be a nail.

 

[wakaflocka88]

These people are pretty skilled as far as taking any trauma that comes in right? As much of these jobs are rural I feel like you most be competent in a lot of rearfoot/ankle trauma pathology.

I’d feel terrible having to try to fix a calc fx or pilon. personally

I know my limits and comfort level. I will send pilons to ortho trauma. I can put a delta on, CT and have my colleague finish the rest.

Calc fractures are not hard. Bad calc fx should be primarily fused. I’m not rural.

 

[dtrack22]

These people are pretty skilled as far as taking any trauma that comes in right? As much of these jobs are rural I feel like you most be competent in a lot of rearfoot/ankle trauma pathology.

I’d feel terrible having to try to fix a calc fx or pilon. personally

Not necessarily. One thing that can be nice about rural medicine is that everyone sends out complex or difficult pathology to bigger centers all the time. You’re never faulted for shipping someone off to a bigger facility. So there is generally little expectation that you will handle trauma you aren’t comfortable with.

 

[air bud]

Not necessarily. One thing that can be nice about rural medicine is that everyone sends out complex or difficult pathology to bigger centers all the time. You’re never faulted for shipping someone off to a bigger facility. So there is generally little expectation that you will handle trauma you aren’t comfortable with.

Yeah. I mean you get Ortho saying yeah I don't do revision knees sorry. Drive 2 hours to the Big D

 

[Bluecollarmed]

Another thing to consider is the hospitals marketing budget and what they plan to do for you. I'm not one that loves to be in front of cameras but I'm up on local tv with a commercial and multiple billboards in our local area. We also send out a monthly flyer to roughly 60k households that has my ugly mug plastered to it. Was also given 2 hours blocked away time for a local chamber meeting to kiss hands and shake babies. Ask the questions of how they're going to help you succeed in their system when you're new.

 

[Retrograde_Nail]

I feel like hospital podiatry would burn you out quickly but the above examples have plenty of PTO

There is never a day or night that I am not charting or completing a note or signing off on a random order or dictating an operative report. At 1000 RVUs per month level you literally do work every day, 7 days a week.

Yes burn out is real and can happen. But I've got young children to feed, clothe and support financially. That is what drives me. I also like to push myself professionally and take on the worst pathologies.

That is what people do not understand with hospital based jobs. You don't get to pick and choose your pathology. If you do then you do at your own peril if you are not busy enough or productive enough. Admins say they are about "you" the physician but all they care about are numbers. Number go up then their bonus goes up. It's that simple.

If you can handle complex patients and pathologies there is really no reason why you can't ramp up your practice rather quickly at any hospital in America. I've had two hospital employed jobs. I am not 2/2 for hitting a 1000 RVUs per month at both facilities. There are plenty podiatrists around you who will dump complex pathology to you if you let them know your door is always open.

 

[Feeter]

I think 6000 wRVUs per year at rate of 48 seems to be the general trend for a general podiatrist. Varies a lot geographically.

If you do complex limb salvage cases and have a good team you can easily do and maintain 8000.

Burn out is real and shortening your career due to burn out is a huge opportunity cost.

Slow and steady wins the race as you won't be able to keep up with volume and non clinical problems in most hospital jobs and eventually get frustrated. Having a team of RNs, APPs, residents helps offload some burdens and keep you going.

For all pods that are joining a hospital job try not to open the flood gates from the get go. Enjoy the first couple of years guaranteed pay as you'll get busy anyways.

Doing charts at home everyday will get old no matter how much you make. It did for me at least.

 

[MicroPod]

Doing charts at home everyday will get old no matter how much you make. It did for me at least.

I have been using Dax AI for notes and it’s a game changer. I have not had to work on charts at home ever so far. I’m not unusually busy yet though so this could change.

 

[Bluecollarmed]

Honestly the worst part is not being able to copy forward a note and just change the pertinent information. Epic highlights all the stuff copied from a previous note and you get an email from the coders and bean counters if you do it too much. This is especially annoying for wound clinic patients who see very little change between weekly visits.

 

[air bud]

Honestly the worst part is not being able to copy forward a note and just change the pertinent information. Epic highlights all the stuff copied from a previous note and you get an email from the coders and bean counters if you do it too much. This is especially annoying for wound clinic patients who see very little change between weekly visits.

Epic is awesome. Using Cerner now. It sucks. The transition to Epic can't come soon enough.

 

[air bud]

I think 6000 wRVUs per year at rate of 48 seems to be the general trend for a general podiatrist. Varies a lot geographically.

If you do complex limb salvage cases and have a good team you can easily do and maintain 8000.

Burn out is real and shortening your career due to burn out is a huge opportunity cost.

Slow and steady wins the race as you won't be able to keep up with volume and non clinical problems in most hospital jobs and eventually get frustrated. Having a team of RNs, APPs, residents helps offload some burdens and keep you going.

For all pods that are joining a hospital job try not to open the flood gates from the get go. Enjoy the first couple of years guaranteed pay as you'll get busy anyways.

Doing charts at home everyday will get old no matter how much you make. It did for me at least.

The extra RVUs are not worth the time lost with your kids.

 

[Bluecollarmed]

Epic is awesome. Using Cerner now. It sucks. The transition to Epic can't come soon enough.

Oh god I remember the Cerner days. Luckily I only had to suffer through a few months of it in residency before those facilities caught up with the real world and went to Epic.

 

[DYK343]

Life is not all about working. I make good money and still have somewhat of a life outside of work.
My goal is about 400k a year. Not unobtainable, not crazy hours, and leaves a high quality life.
Thats about 20-25 patients a day and 5-10 surgeries a week + inpatient rounding.
I start at 715 every morning. Im done by 5pm almost everyday with notes complete.

Edit:
50-52 per RVU tiered
Production only after first 2 years
Low cost of living area (very inexpensive) about 500k population.
401k w 8% match
403B
4 weeks paid vacation
100% tail covered after 2 years employed.
I cant remember CME stipend/time away. It could be better because it includes cost of my license/boards which is lame. Pays for about 1 conference a year. Anything else i have to contribute. I can do online CME in my state though and UpToDate is free for me.

I generated 47 RVU today operating without using my brain. Limb salvage for the win!

 

[Redsting]

I am doing about 7k wRVUs in 3 days a week plus flat rate (not best but its something) outreach a day week and a day off a week.
I made over 400k last year and didn't feel burned out at all. Some of that is having good support at work. Some of it is having a day off a week. A good amount of PTO would help (I did not use a lot of mine last year). Some of not burning out is I don't really take call. I am around if they need me, but I only get called a few times a year.

I usually dont carry note into the next week. If I have notes at the end of the work week I get them done after my kids go to bed.
I don't get home till 6 though. Depending on the day I start between 7 and 8

So 350k is doable. But it took me probably 3 years to build up to that point. I am in a smaller area. For me it didn't happen over night. Build a name for yourself. Be willing to spend a few extra minutes with people. Take walk ins/ don't turn people away. Care about people and they will see it.

EDIT: Spelling

 

[wakaflocka88]

I think 6000 wRVUs per year at rate of 48 seems to be the general trend for a general podiatrist. Varies a lot geographically.

If you do complex limb salvage cases and have a good team you can easily do and maintain 8000.

Burn out is real and shortening your career due to burn out is a huge opportunity cost.

Slow and steady wins the race as you won't be able to keep up with volume and non clinical problems in most hospital jobs and eventually get frustrated. Having a team of RNs, APPs, residents helps offload some burdens and keep qyou going.

For all pods that are joining a hospital job try not to open the flood gates from the get go. Enjoy the first couple of years guaranteed pay as you'll get busy anyways.

Doing charts at home everyday will get old no matter how much you make. It did for me at least.

I personally will not work more over spending time with my family and kiddos. I finish most days 4pm latest, in the OR 2-2.5 days a week and generate 9000 wRVU without call. Some OR block days I’m done by 12 and I go home.

 

[Feli]

These people are pretty skilled as far as taking any trauma that comes in right? As much of these jobs are rural I feel like you most be competent in a lot of rearfoot/ankle trauma pathology.

I’d feel terrible having to try to fix a calc fx or pilon. personally

You will quickly realize the is a MASSIVE difference between low and high energy trauma... just cracked vs highly committed/displaced. The skill/planning level and outcomes are night and day.

There are two limit points: surgeon's skill and facility/staff capabilities. A lot of the podunk hospitals or boondocks IHS and many CAHs simply don't reliably have the staff to help with those distractions and maybe ex fix and all the moving parts required on those cases. Some do. Sometimes, a good scrub tech quits and you're in rough shape for awhile. Sure, you can use push-pull fibula or distractors or tell the big circulate nurse guy to scrub in for 5min to help distract, but you are only as good as the overall team. Some things you can do in a metro hospital with a resident or two and an ortho scrub tech or two simply aren't done well in rural with just you and one or two techs who do mostly OB and gen surg. (found this out a few times in my own career!)

This mindset also applies to recon ... huge diff between in situ and realignment fusions (flatfoot, cavus, charcot, post trauma, TAR/fusion, etc). A flexible flatfoot is not too tough; a rigid one realignment is a major undertaking. Just because someone did a few Charcot planing or a handful of SER-2 in residency does NOT mean they "know Charcot recon" or "know ankle fractures."

 

[Feeter]

I personally will not work more over spending time with my family and kiddos. I finish most days 4pm latest, in the OR 2-2.5 days a week and generate 9000 wRVU without call. Some OR block days I’m done by 12 and I go home.

That is very impressive! Good job! Maybe it was the systems I worked for but I was killing myself doing 8000 a year. In a better spot now.

 

[Feeter]

I am doing about 7k wRVUs in 3 days a week plus plate rate (not best but its something) outreach a day week and a day off a week.
I made over 400k last year and didn't feel burned out at all. Some of that is having good support at work. Some of it is having a day off a week. A good amount of PTO would help (I did not use a lot of mine last year). Some of not burning out is I don't really take call. I am around if they need me, but I only get called a few times a year.

I usually dont carry note into the next week. If I have notes at the end of the work week I get them done after my kids go to bed.
I don't get home till 6 though. Depending on the day I start between 7 and 8

So 350k is doable. But it took me probably 3 years to build up to that point. I am in a smaller area. For me it didn't happen over night. Build a name for yourself. Be willing to spend a few extra minutes with people. Take walk ins/ don't turn people away. Care about people and they will see it.

This is great to hear that people are doing really well and maintaining a good balance and income. Good job!