may be leadership and management opportunities available to practicing physicians as well. Employed physicians frequently enjoy having a predictable schedule and low financial risk. In addition, you receive benefits such as malpractice, health and disability insurance, and you do not have to hire or manage ancillary staff; however, this also means you will not have direct control over office management and other practice issues. Employed physicians are also required to adhere to their organization’s resource utilization guidelines, quality assurance standards, and potential referral restrictions. They may have limited input into determining which payer contracts the practice chooses to pursue and are thus at a slightly higher risk of losing patients to insurance changes.
GROUP PRACTICE, HOSPITAL, OR HEALTH SYSTEM EMPLOYMENT
If you choose employment with a group practice, it may be a single or multi-specialty practice. The size and patient volume of some organizations may provide additional assistance to its clinicians and offer opportunities for expanding into other aspects of health care delivery, such as governance committees and working in non-clinical positions.
GOVERNMENT ENTITY EMPLOYMENT
You can become an employee of various government entities, including the Veteran Affairs health care system, state or local health departments or federally qualified health centers and community health networks. All of these entities provide increased government oversight to a physician, which usually decreases autonomy within the practice setting. Additionally, the physician’s role may involve more administrative duties and decreased patient contact, especially within health departments.
WORKING IN ACADEMIA
As an employee of an academic institution, you could have the opportunity to see patients, conduct research, be in close proximity to individuals of multiple specialties and teach or mentor future physicians. Your responsibilities will differ both by institution as well as by the specific role for which you are hired. This means you might have an academic appointment but still primarily see patients or have a research lab with minimal patient contact. Academic institutions have complex leadership structures. There may be leadership and management opportunities available that can require little to almost all of a physician’s time, but they may also be very limited in number or require years within the system before a promotion. You may also have decreased clinical autonomy. Academic institutions hire physicians into full-time clinical tracks, or their time between clinical roles and either research, teaching, or administration. While every center is different, it is important to ask about the tracks and the possibility of promotion or tenure. Those who can establish seniority or tenure are often granted the flexibility to manage their own time and projects with reduced pressure to meet goals and deadlines.
16 La State Med Soc NEW PHYSICIAN’S GUIDE
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