Urgent Care As A Career

[Pilgrimage]

Hey guys!

M3 possibly interested in FM here. Taking a look at career paths. I have heard of a few FM grads doing urgent care full-time.

I'd be interested to know:

-how common is this?

-how doable/practical is it?

-what kind of flexibility and work-lifestyle balance does it afford in scheduling and work-load?

Thanks! I've searched these forums and surfed some online job postings, but I'd like more perspective on this.

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[madiso30]

So take this with some pre-med lack of knowledge.

One mentor of mine with an FM background does urgent care and telemedicine only. He started a telemedicine practice that was bought up by a large healthcare network. He then became their “chief of urgent care” and he bounces back and forth between all of their different urgent care clinics.

That’s just his story. I’m sure there’s various ways to do urgent care as a career.

 

[deleted87716]

Most urgent care docs burned out in their original specialty (frequently EM), are semi-retired, or simply can't do anything else for whatever reason. I only know one fellow residency grad who does full-time urgent care. One of these days, I'll have to ask him why.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

I did full time urgent care for a year. It was the worse year of my life. I frequently said that I was happier in residency and my wife believed me.

Pros:

- Defined schedule with no call
- Money is usually decent
- Given the explosion of urgent cares, its easy to find work

Cons:
- Long shifts, usually 12 hours
- Weekends and holidays you have to work
- You're basically an antibiotic dispensing machine. If people go to an urgent care and leave without an antibiotic, they are going to be pissed off. I tried giving meds for symptoms and that doesn't help.
- You lose a lot of your FM skills like chronic disease management and preventative medicine
- 90% of your patients will have URIs or some flavor
- No control over your schedule when working. I had days where in 12 hours I saw 20 people and days where in 12 hours I saw 76 (my highest).

 

[Bacchus]

Don’t do it. It’s a waste of your degree. There’s a reason most health networks hire APCs for these roles, the complexity is low and algorithmic. You will lose important knowledge.

 

[AMEHigh]

I “know” one woman from a non-medical message board that does urgent care full time. I’m not exactly sure how she got in to it, but she seems to love it and talks about all of the benefits. I think she’s worked her way up and is now some sort of director and I’m sure she makes pretty decent money.

I think the benefits are that it’s shift work and the money is pretty decent. But otherwise I think the day to day can be pretty difficult to make it a full time career with advancement possibilities.

 

[deleted87716]

I think the benefits are that it’s shift work and the money is pretty decent.

"Shift work" usually means long shifts (e.g., 12 hours), including nights, weekends, and holidays. I'd hardly call that a benefit.

 

[smq123]

My friend did urgent care (not sure if she still is). I think she got a little burned out by continuity clinic, and wanted something where she did not have to follow the patients.

 

[septoplasty]

I did full time urgent care for a year. It was the worse year of my life. I frequently said that I was happier in residency and my wife believed me.

Pros:

- Defined schedule with no call
- Money is usually decent
- Given the explosion of urgent cares, its easy to find work

Cons:
- Long shifts, usually 12 hours
- Weekends and holidays you have to work
- You're basically an antibiotic dispensing machine. If people go to an urgent care and leave without an antibiotic, they are going to be pissed off. I tried giving meds for symptoms and that doesn't help.
- You lose a lot of your FM skills like chronic disease management and preventative medicine
- 90% of your patients will have URIs or some flavor
- No control over your schedule when working. I had days where in 12 hours I saw 20 people and days where in 12 hours I saw 76 (my highest).

This should be a sticky, single best post here on the FM forum.

Basically, Don't do it.. well unless you're in between jobs or need to pay off loans while you're in between jobs.
I think someone on here said something like "its where FM skills go to die". This is 100% true.

 

[AMEHigh]

"Shift work" usually means long shifts (e.g., 12 hours), including nights, weekends, and holidays. I'd hardly call that a benefit.

Everyone has different priorities. Some people enjoy the fact that they have 8 or 12 hour shifts 3 to 4 times per week and make more money than traditional 9-5 where you also might be on call and/or finishing your notes or patient calls after hours. (One of the large UC groups near me lets you do 8 hour shifts).

 

[TraumaLlamaMD]

My husband is working full time at an urgent care while I finish up my training (with the idea that him joining a primary care practice for only two years makes little sense as we will be relocating for my fellowship). He typically works 3 or 4 shifts per week. It’s not something he wants to do forever, and I know he misses some aspects of longterm care management and continuity, but for the time being he seems satisfied enough with the variety of cases and enjoys having a few days a week completely off. Reading over my shoulder he’s commenting that he sees a lot of URIs but enough variety in between that he keeps his sanity. The money is pretty good for the hours worked per week, and he has a scribe there so he’s not finishing notes when he gets home like he had to in residency.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

Everyone has different priorities. Some people enjoy the fact that they have 8 or 12 hour shifts 3 to 4 times per week and make more money than traditional 9-5 where you also might be on call and/or finishing your notes or patient calls after hours. (One of the large UC groups near me lets you do 8 hour shifts).

If you're making more money doing 36 hours/week of urgent care (average at the places I've moonlighted) than someone working the same hours in regular FM then either you're paid exceptionally well or those primary care jobs are paying very poorly.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

To expound upon that a little. When I was full time UC, it was the most I've made at any UC - roughly $130/hour (moonlighting was paying $100/hour).

If we compare that to an average outpatient FP in regular practice, we find that this number isn't all that great. At my current job, we're paid via RVUs. Based on the weekly figures I'm seeing, our established doctors (meaning have been working here more than 2 years) are pulling closer to $160/hour. Many significantly more.

That's the big difference. If when I was working for that urgent care, I had been paid on production, my hourly rate would have been significantly more (almost double). But I was paid the same whether I saw 20 patients or 60. Ignoring how demoralizing that is, it limits your income to a significant degree.

 

[septoplasty]

If you're making more money doing 36 hours/week of urgent care (average at the places I've moonlighted) than someone working the same hours in regular FM then either you're paid exceptionally well or those primary care jobs are paying very poorly.

Doesn't MGMA data point to UC being better paid than FM?

Again, these are strictly numbers, doesn't take into account hours/effort put in.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

Doesn't MGMA data point to UC being better paid than FM?

Again, these are strictly numbers, doesn't take into account hours/effort put in.

Possibly, I haven't looked at MGMA numbers in several years and didn't pay any attention to urgent care at the time.

But that's not what I'm seeing on the ground in my specific area.

 

[septoplasty]

Possibly, I haven't looked at MGMA numbers in several years and didn't pay any attention to urgent care at the time.

But that's not what I'm seeing on the ground in my specific area.

So numbers in 2016 (2017 release) said $270k in midwest, lowest was in the eastern part with $248k.

 

[DrMeowMeow]

It's easier to find work in Urgent Care over a normal clinic. I get a bunch of spam emails and calls for Urgent Care/Locums.

 

[raptor5]

At my institution urgent care is integrated into the health system as we have about 24 urgent care facilities throughout the state. A few are within the hospital but most are within multi-specialty clinics. Only a couple of stand alones. Most docs are FM. Several IM. A few IM/Peds, a few EM. Shifts are 8-12 hours. Volume is 30-60 per 12 hour shift. If full time about 14 shifts per month which includes a sick call in doc, one midnight shift, and two Saturday’s and two Sunday’s. We submit preferences about 2 months ahead of time.


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[cabinbuilder]

Hey guys!

M3 possibly interested in FM here. Taking a look at career paths. I have heard of a few FM grads doing urgent care full-time.

I'd be interested to know:

-how common is this?

-how doable/practical is it?

-what kind of flexibility and work-lifestyle balance does it afford in scheduling and work-load?

Thanks! I've searched these forums and surfed some online job postings, but I'd like more perspective on this.

I do urgent care exclusively. Everyone I work with only does urgent care
I work 10 days a month on my contract. I can pick up extra shifts if I want for hourly wage
Depending on whether it's flu season or not, I see anywhere from 25 -50 people in a 12 hours shift.

 

[cabinbuilder]

Most urgent care docs burned out in their original specialty (frequently EM), are semi-retired, or simply can't do anything else for whatever reason. I only know one fellow residency grad who does full-time urgent care. One of these days, I'll have to ask him why.


View attachment 242148

I do urgent care full time because I hated FP and I don't like people dying on me in ER. I like the variety, the procedures. I don't have to do f/u. I only work 10 days a month. I don't have to take call. I make plenty of money and am free on my off days to do what I want. I can pick up more shifts if I want.

 

[cabinbuilder]

"Shift work" usually means long shifts (e.g., 12 hours), including nights, weekends, and holidays. I'd hardly call that a benefit.

Yes, I work 12 hour shifts (7a-7p). My schedule is set Thurs, Fri then the next M,T,W. Then I have 7 days off in a row and it repeats. I only work holidays if that is how they fall on my schedule. I don't work nights. My days and hours never change. I basically have two weeks vacation every month.

 

[AMEHigh]

If you're making more money doing 36 hours/week of urgent care (average at the places I've moonlighted) than someone working the same hours in regular FM then either you're paid exceptionally well or those primary care jobs are paying very poorly.

Well I’m in the NE, so yes in general typical FM positions don’t pay like in other areas of the country. Typically anywhere from 150k to 180k to start. A few recent grads decided to do UC to start for a year due to life/family circumstances and they all were set to make more than typical FM positions in our area. Obviously this is dependent on location and type of FM environment you practice in.

 

[Marcus Brody]

I think as far as compensation it depends on #1 geography/location and #2 the particular type of clinic you are working at. Some tiny UC clinics do literally nothing but sore throats, runny noses and DOT physicals. They are staffed by LPNs and don't even have labs. Others are practically like ERs sans attached hospital, doing imaging (even on-site CT), IV meds, IVF, staffed by ER RNs, etc. If you are at one of those and it has a steady amount of volume, and it is in the right geographic area, $250-275k is about average. More if you want to work an extra 1-2 shifts per month.

The downside to full-time urgent care imo is it will slowly...and painfully.. destroy your f#%@ing soul, and also your desire to practice medicine. Remember explaining over and over again back in college and med school in your interviews, how you "like people" (and you actually meant it!) ? Well now imagine a job that has you on a daily basis saying over and over, out-loud to yourself and to your colleagues around you, "I %#@ing hate these people." I mean the 19 year old checking in for abdominal pain for 2 months, sore throat and a cough, a lesion on the penis, and anxiety. To urgent care. Also the 85 year old with exertional SOB/chest pain who insists it's just a cold and that she simply wants a z-pak. The kids who keep being brought in because mom is too lazy to go to their pediatrician. Many if not most of the complaints you were glad to deal with in either the inpatient setting or outpatient primary care setting become infuriating in urgent care for some reason, whether it's the lack of resources/capabilities, the anonymity, the unrealistic expectations, etc. I mean.... "Chest pain," really? At urgent care? Then there are the administrators who are fixated on nothing but productivity numbers and dollars and wait times and patient satisfaction statistics (IE: Press Ganey surveys! ) and who are perpetually trying to push pre-op clearance visits, DOT physicals, etc on you and your colleagues. And last but not least, of course... the antibiotic fetish the general population in the USA seems to have. "I think I have a sinus infection (ie: runny nose 2 days) I need my z-pak (not even the appropriate abx for bacteral sinusitis) !" and how you are seen as the obligate dispensary of these medications. This **** will burn you out. So yea, $250k/year to do shift work 37.5hr/week is nice in theory but the question is how long can you keep it up?

 

[cabinbuilder]

To expound upon that a little. When I was full time UC, it was the most I've made at any UC - roughly $130/hour (moonlighting was paying $100/hour).

If we compare that to an average outpatient FP in regular practice, we find that this number isn't all that great. At my current job, we're paid via RVUs. Based on the weekly figures I'm seeing, our established doctors (meaning have been working here more than 2 years) are pulling closer to $160/hour. Many significantly more.

That's the big difference. If when I was working for that urgent care, I had been paid on production, my hourly rate would have been significantly more (almost double). But I was paid the same whether I saw 20 patients or 60. Ignoring how demoralizing that is, it limits your income to a significant degree.

My urgent care job is on RVU's. I can pick up shifts at an hourly rate on top of that but I get the RVU's from both my hourly shifts and my scheduled shifts. Working extra this past quarter so other can have time off for the holidays. I am averaging 725 RVU's/month, my minimum is 296. So anything over the 296 I get bonus for at $54.57/RVU. Adds up quickly along with my regular pay and my hourly extras.

 

[cabinbuilder]

I think as far as compensation it depends on #1 geography/location and #2 the particular type of clinic you are working at. Some tiny UC clinics do literally nothing but sore throats, runny noses and DOT physicals. They are staffed by LPNs and don't even have labs. Others are practically like ERs sans attached hospital, doing imaging (even on-site CT), IV meds, IVF, staffed by ER RNs, etc. If you are at one of those and it has a steady amount of volume, and it is in the right geographic area, $250-275k is about average. More if you want to work an extra 1-2 shifts per month.

The downside to full-time urgent care imo is it will slowly...and painfully.. destroy your f#%@ing soul, and also your desire to practice medicine. Remember explaining over and over again back in college and med school in your interviews, how you "like people" (and you actually meant it!) ? Well now imagine a job that has you on a daily basis saying over and over, out-loud to yourself and to your colleagues around you, "I %#@ing hate these people." I mean the 19 year old checking in for abdominal pain for 2 months, sore throat and a cough, a lesion on the penis, and anxiety. To urgent care. Also the 85 year old with exertional SOB/chest pain who insists it's just a cold and that she simply wants a z-pak. The kids who keep being brought in because mom is too lazy to go to their pediatrician. Many if not most of the complaints you were glad to deal with in either the inpatient setting or outpatient primary care setting become infuriating in urgent care for some reason, whether it's the lack of resources/capabilities, the anonymity, the unrealistic expectations, etc. I mean.... "Chest pain," really? At urgent care? Then there are the administrators who are fixated on nothing but productivity numbers and dollars and wait times and patient satisfaction statistics (IE: Press Ganey surveys! ) and who are perpetually trying to push pre-op clearance visits, DOT physicals, etc on you and your colleagues. And last but not least, of course... the antibiotic fetish the general population in the USA seems to have. "I think I have a sinus infection (ie: runny nose 2 days) I need my z-pak (not even the appropriate abx for bacteral sinusitis) !" and how you are seen as the obligate dispensary of these medications. This **** will burn you out. So yea, $250k/year to do shift work 37.5hr/week is nice in theory but the question is how long can you keep it up?

While all this is totally true and I believe there should be an ICD-10 code for "Intolerance to Life" & "Millenial Snowflake Syndrome", I see urgent care as a safety net for many patients who would not otherwise gone to the ER and died at home. I still have fun even on the hard days and enjoy it.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

My urgent care job is on RVU's. I can pick up shifts at an hourly rate on top of that but I get the RVU's from both my hourly shifts and my scheduled shifts. Working extra this past quarter so other can have time off for the holidays. I am averaging 725 RVU's/month, my minimum is 296. So anything over the 296 I get bonus for at $54.57/RVU. Adds up quickly along with my regular pay and my hourly extras.

And that's the ideal, but I haven't seen that around anywhere I've been.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

While all this is totally true and I believe there should be an ICD-10 code for "Intolerance to Life" & "Millenial Snowflake Syndrome", I see urgent care as a safety net for many patients who would not otherwise gone to the ER and died at home. I still have fun even on the hard days and enjoy it.

I think you are fairly unique. Your locums career was impressive but I've not met anyone else who did it like you did. So I'm not surprised you can find meaning in UC when most of us can't.

 

[Bacchus]

Well I’m in the NE, so yes in general typical FM positions don’t pay like in other areas of the country. Typically anywhere from 150k to 180k to start. A few recent grads decided to do UC to start for a year due to life/family circumstances and they all were set to make more than typical FM positions in our area. Obviously this is dependent on location and type of FM environment you practice in.

I thought this was the case working in the NE. It simply is not. The 2 systems in my area are starting anywhere between 200-225. 1.5h from NYC and PHL. That said, my pay has quickly escalated, nearly 80k in 2 years.

 

[cabinbuilder]

And that's the ideal, but I haven't seen that around anywhere I've been.

Probably because I live where there is a huge doctor shortage and while admin sucks just like anywhere else, they are not around to be bothersome, and really do try hard to make it worth while not to lose providers.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

Probably because I live where there is a huge doctor shortage and while admin sucks just like anywhere else, they are not around to be bothersome, and really do try hard to make it worth while not to lose providers.

I did UC in a pretty big shortage area too and had I been paid in RVUs I'd have cleared 300k that one year. Interestingly, after I quit they never replaced me - just made their EM group fill in until the practice was sold to a large UC chain.

 

[cabinbuilder]

I did UC in a pretty big shortage area too and had I been paid in RVUs I'd have cleared 300k that one year. Interestingly, after I quit they never replaced me - just made their EM group fill in until the practice was sold to a large UC chain.

Interesting since there is still a huge shortage. I still get calls almost every day from recruiters looking for help. Can't complain about the pay. Should clear $400K this year. But I have put in a lot of extra shifts this last quarter due to lack of help.

 

[raptor5]

So numbers in 2016 (2017 release) said $270k in midwest, lowest was in the eastern part with $248k.

Our median in the mountain west is about 265k.


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[intel21]

Interesting since there is still a huge shortage. I still get calls almost every day from recruiters looking for help. Can't complain about the pay. Should clear $400K this year. But I have put in a lot of extra shifts this last quarter due to lack of help.

Our median in the mountain west is about 265k.

Current FM resident here also looking to go into UC.

What are some good websites to look for UC jobs with these generous compensations?
The emails and websites I've looked at, all usually range between 220-250k. It seems most don't advertise the amount, and you'd need to call to find out.

So numbers in 2016 (2017 release) said $270k in midwest, lowest was in the eastern part with $248k.

What are the numbers like for the West coast?

 

[TableMD]

Only way this could be a long term thing is if you are like Cabin and have a procedure heavy set up.

If you are in an ED/ortho super saturated place and find yourself in URI/UTI hell, I would fear for your souls, unless you are close to retirement and doing one shift a week and the NGAF is strong

 

[SLC]

I work in a college town. As a result I do a fair bit of urgent care by default. STD checks are particularly fun.

 

[W19]

Interesting since there is still a huge shortage. I still get calls almost every day from recruiters looking for help. Can't complain about the pay. Should clear $400K this year. But I have put in a lot of extra shifts this last quarter due to lack of help.

Average hours/wk?

 

[cabinbuilder]

Average hours/wk?

My contract is 10 days a month, 12 hour shifts. Flu season and the end of the year I do extra shifts to make extra money. If I only did my 10 a month I would clear about 260K. When I do extra shifts I get hourly wage plus the RVU's add into the total so my quarterly bonuses get large in a hurry.

 

[cabinbuilder]

Current FM resident here also looking to go into UC.

What are some good websites to look for UC jobs with these generous compensations?
The emails and websites I've looked at, all usually range between 220-250k. It seems most don't advertise the amount, and you'd need to call to find out.



What are the numbers like for the West coast?

I would say this is average. It's working extra and having RVU's factored in that give you the bigger numbers. Comes down to the contract. If you are hourly wage only then you would never hit those high numbers.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

I work in a college town. As a result I do a fair bit of urgent care by default. STD checks are particularly fun.

Urine and self-swab, STD checks are way easier than they used to be.

 

[SLC]

Urine and self-swab, STD checks are way easier than they used to be.

True, but inevitably it’s some dudes penis he needs me to look at. I did find a seminoma last month that way though, 24yo. Completely confined to the testis and was able to be managed entirely surgically.

Cool story: I drew all the tumor markers, got an in office chest X-ray, ordered the CT chest-abdomen and pelvis, and referred him to Uro. They saw him 3 days later and because his work up was done they took him directly from the exam room to the OR for orchiectomy. Got a thank you letter from the surgeon for the complete work up later that day.

 

[deleted103644]

True, but inevitably it’s some dudes penis he needs me to look at.

There’s something I need to show you. No, you don’t understand, you really need to see this.

 

[betamale]

I would say this is average. It's working extra and having RVU's factored in that give you the bigger numbers. Comes down to the contract. If you are hourly wage only then you would never hit those high numbers.

Still don't know how rvus work. I'm on my first ER job with RVU and got an extra check last week with a label "rvu" that essentially doubled my pay...I was shocked. Most of the UCs I've looked at offer $125/hr (20-40 pts/day). I guess if you work 40 hrs/wk for 48 wks a yr, you could get $240k and if they offer RVU, then you could match ER pay; definitely consider places with RVUs

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

Still don't know how rvus work. I'm on my first ER job with RVU and got an extra check last week with a label "rvu" that essentially doubled my pay...I was shocked. Most of the UCs I've looked at offer $125/hr (20-40 pts/day). I guess if you work 40 hrs/wk for 48 wks a yr, you could get $240k and if they offer RVU, then you could match ER pay; definitely consider places with RVUs

So RVUs are fairly straightforward.

Every single CPT code has an assigned wRVU (the w stands for work) value. For example, a 99213 is worth 0.9 wRVU, a 99214 is worth 1.5wRVU, a knee injection (20610) is worth .79. This website makes it easy to look up values: Work RVU Calculator - Relative Value Unit - AAPC

Now, your contract should specify how much a wRVU is worth. In my neck of the woods, UC and primary care get $40/wRVU.

Your contract also likely says that if you earn more in wRVUs than you draw in salary, they will pay you the difference. That's probably where the extra money came from.

For example, let's say that for October I drew 15k in salary. Let's also assume that I generated 400 wRVUs in that time. Those 400 wRVUs are worth $16k using the rate above. So my job would then pay me an extra 1k at the end of the month.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

So RVUs are fairly straightforward.

Every single CPT code has an assigned wRVU (the w stands for work) value. For example, a 99213 is worth 0.9 wRVU, a 99214 is worth 1.5wRVU, a knee injection (20610) is worth .79. This website makes it easy to look up values: Work RVU Calculator - Relative Value Unit - AAPC

Now, your contract should specify how much a wRVU is worth. In my neck of the woods, UC and primary care get $40/wRVU.

Your contract also likely says that if you earn more in wRVUs than you draw in salary, they will pay you the difference. That's probably where the extra money came from.

For example, let's say that for October I drew 15k in salary. Let's also assume that I generated 400 wRVUs in that time. Those 400 wRVUs are worth $16k using the rate above. So my job would then pay me an extra 1k at the end of the month.

That’s the clearest explanation I’ve ever read, thanks.

 

[betamale]

So RVUs are fairly straightforward.

Every single CPT code has an assigned wRVU (the w stands for work) value. For example, a 99213 is worth 0.9 wRVU, a 99214 is worth 1.5wRVU, a knee injection (20610) is worth .79. This website makes it easy to look up values: Work RVU Calculator - Relative Value Unit - AAPC

Now, your contract should specify how much a wRVU is worth. In my neck of the woods, UC and primary care get $40/wRVU.

Your contract also likely says that if you earn more in wRVUs than you draw in salary, they will pay you the difference. That's probably where the extra money came from.

For example, let's say that for October I drew 15k in salary. Let's also assume that I generated 400 wRVUs in that time. Those 400 wRVUs are worth $16k using the rate above. So my job would then pay me an extra 1k at the end of the month.

Cool, thx for explaining that. totally skimmed through that part of contract but turned out to be very lucrative...also, turns out there are metric incentives...whoops.

 

[Bacchus]

Cool, thx for explaining that. totally skimmed through that part of contract but turned out to be very lucrative...also, turns out there are metric incentives...whoops.

Skim and contract shouldn’t be in the same sentence.

 

[cabinbuilder]

Still don't know how rvus work. I'm on my first ER job with RVU and got an extra check last week with a label "rvu" that essentially doubled my pay...I was shocked. Most of the UCs I've looked at offer $125/hr (20-40 pts/day). I guess if you work 40 hrs/wk for 48 wks a yr, you could get $240k and if they offer RVU, then you could match ER pay; definitely consider places with RVUs

Every patient you see, level of care etc is assigned a specific RVU value. So a 99213 where I work is worth .97 RVU's , 99214 is worth 1.2. Then if you do procedures those add additional RVU's to the total.

Your contract should designate the minimum RVU's you are expected to produce each month - mine is 296.
Any amount of RVU's over the required they have a conversion factor and that is your RVU bonus.
So for every RVU over I produce every month I get paid $54.57 per RVU.
My minimum per month is 296. In October I produced 739 RVU's ( I worked a ton of extra shifts) So 739-296=442 x $54.57 = $24,000 RVU bonus for October. I get my bonus checks quarterly.

 

[betamale]

Every patient you see, level of care etc is assigned a specific RVU value. So a 99213 where I work is worth .97 RVU's , 99214 is worth 1.2. Then if you do procedures those add additional RVU's to the total.

Your contract should designate the minimum RVU's you are expected to produce each month - mine is 296.
Any amount of RVU's over the required they have a conversion factor and that is your RVU bonus.
So for every RVU over I produce every month I get paid $54.57 per RVU.
My minimum per month is 296. In October I produced 739 RVU's ( I worked a ton of extra shifts) So 739-296=442 x $54.57 = $24,000 RVU bonus for October. I get my bonus checks quarterly.

Dang, u're killing it. That wasn't explained on the contract, all it says is that an RVU program exist and that my RVU is multiplied by such and such and that it is up for review every 90 days and can be terminated at their discretion. Does not explain RVU per procedure, code, diagnosis, etc... The base rate was adequate for me so it was not something I pursued and it looks like it's earned doing more work which sounds like a lot of extra work, thanks for explaining it though. I'll definitely look into that closer on my next jobs

 

[cabinbuilder]

Dang, u're killing it. That wasn't explained on the contract, all it says is that an RVU program exist and that my RVU is multiplied by such and such and that it is up for review every 90 days and can be terminated at their discretion. Does not explain RVU per procedure, code, diagnosis, etc... The base rate was adequate for me so it was not something I pursued and it looks like it's earned doing more work which sounds like a lot of extra work, thanks for explaining it though. I'll definitely look into that closer on my next jobs

Sounds like your contract does have a minimum RVU required which is why there is a "90 day review". If you don't meet the minimum they can terminate you for not bringing in revenue.

 

[scharnhorst]

You're basically an antibiotic dispensing machine. If people go to an urgent care and leave without an antibiotic, they are going to be pissed off. I tried giving meds for symptoms and that doesn't help.

so how do you deal with that
even in primary care its hard to "deny" antibiotics to people