salary for trauma surgery

[EclecticMind]

anyone know how trauma surgeons are paid? Like is it by the hour, or what? Thanks

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[Winged Scapula]

Originally posted by EclecticMind
anyone know how trauma surgeons are paid? Like is it by the hour, or what? Thanks

Since they are usually on faculty at a university hospital, they are on salary like any other hospital physician. No extra pay for those late night GSW repairs unfortunately.

 

[EclecticMind]

Ok, thanks.

 

[Z]

Most trauma surgeons generate their salary in several ways. Of coarse they can bill for the time spent in shock trauma resuscitation. Also, many times the trauma surgeon is also critical care certified. Therefore, they can bill for the procedures (central lines, bronchs, a-lines, pa caths, etc) done in the ICU as well as the daily care of the patients (in 15 min increments). Some also have an active general surgery practice. If they are academically inclined, grants can also support the salary as well. Now, having said all that let me answer your question. Salary will vary by region of the country and type of practice. There are some outrageous situations out there. For example, in a medium sized town in Alabama the surgeons in the community were tired of seeing the trauma patients. They put up as a group and in association with the hospital $500,000 to hire a trauma surgeon to take the majority of the trauma call. On the other end of the spectrum are some university based programs where you will have the privilege of working at the university for relative peanuts (~$90-100,000). However, the average starting salary is probably in the $150-175,000 range. Peak depends, but probably around $250-275,000. In most places it is not shift work. Most of the time you are on call and then work a full day the next day. Hope this helps.

 

[EclecticMind]

thanks for the input Z.

 

[ckent]

Unfortunately, trauma surgery is one of the lower reimbursed surgical specialties out there. Here in Maryland (our state in general), they are having a lot of trouble recruting enough trauma surgeons to keep trauma centers open since reimbursement is mainly from the state and federal government that always pay lower then private insurers. It makes sense if you think about it, if you are injured by trauma, your probability of being insured is far lower then most other medical illnesses (most trauma victims are young (MVA's), often reckless, involved in criminal activities (gsw, stab)); and you certainly can't turn away or put off expensive operations on the uninsured, everyone who rolls through your doors has to receive the same expensive work up and treatment. The avg salary for a fellowship trained trauma surgen is often lower then a general surgeon (which takes fewer years of training). Here at my medical school, which has arguably one of the best shock trauma centers in the world, I have heard that the attendings make 150-200,000. They get a lot of their support from donations though, and even though the state of Maryland has difficulty convincing trauma surgeons to stay in trauma, I would imagine that the situation in other states is even worse since the state of Maryland is known to have one of the best trauma systems in the nation. To add insult to injury, the work hours for trauma surgeons are worse then most other surgeons as well, as I'm sure that you can imagine that trauma is never a 9-5 job, most trauma occurs in the morning and late afternoon during rush hour, and of course during the middle of the night and someone always has to be on call for that. The attendings here have to do q3, when they are in the hospital (not home call) q3 during the months that they are on.

 

[supercut]

Don't forget though, that trauma also includes a lot of on the job injuries, which are covered by workman's comp. And most people acutally do have auto insurance, so MVA injuries are often covered as well.

However, since most trauma centers are also academic medical centers, and pay is lower at academic medical centers, it makes sense that pay is lower for trauma surgeons than for private practice general surgeons.

If your main goal is money, then trauma surgery isn't for you

 

[ortho2003]

trauma surgery can pay quite well if you are in private practice. At my hospital, the trauma surgeons get paid a set fee (over a grand) just for taking trauma call. Then they get reimburesd from health, auto, work comp, and medicaid. Obviously health and medicaid pay the least, but it isn't hard for them to rake in 5-10 grand for a night of call if they go to the OR. Do that once a week and you have a pretty nice supplement to your salary.