What questions to ask when looking for a hospitalist job?

[nkafeel]

Applying for a hospitalist job, unsure what to ask

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[DrMetal]

Applying for a hospitalist job, unsure what to ask

"What do you have in the doctor's lounge?"

Good answers: All you can drink coffee, assorted sandwiches, hot soup, fresh sushi, all free of charge, good TV with ESPN and Golf Channel

Bad answers: What lounge? (or there is one, but you have to pay dues to use it)

 

[The kitchen sink]

Is there PTO? Call room? OT / holiday rates?

 

[obiwan]

Do you have to round and admit on the same day, number of night shifts that you have to do, what is typical daily census, what is the patient population to expect i.e. more bread and butter vs pretty high complexity like transplant/oncology etc, do hospitalists typically serve as primary attending on other patients like surgical patients, how long do have to cover pages on your patients when rounding, is it open or closed ICU, how is the sub-specialist support, are you expected to perform any procedures, opportunities to pick up shifts, is it more shift based pay vs RVU, how much CME do you get, are you able to do admin work to branch off from clinical duties etc etc etc etc etc

 

[dozitgetchahi]

"What do you have in the doctor's lounge?"

Good answers: All you can drink coffee, assorted sandwiches, hot soup, fresh sushi, all free of charge, good TV with ESPN and Golf Channel

Bad answers: What lounge? (or there is one, but you have to pay dues to use it)

Fun story: at my first (crappy) rheumatology job, I worked for a hospital system. Eventually I learned that there was a doctors lounge somewhere; they didn’t tell me where it was and I didn’t have a key to get into it. They kept promising to get me a key, but like most promises made at that job, they were never kept.

Towards the time I left, some admin types kept nagging me about whether or not I’d seen this mailing or that memo - “you know, they’re in your mailbox in the doctors lounge”. I replied curtly that in three years I’d never set foot into the doctors lounge because I had no way of getting into it. (For all I know, it could have looked like the inside of the Sistine Chapel.) Then, I left about a month later.