Career Advice for Physicians
Our archive of practical advice on finding a physician job, reading an employment contract, interviewing, and starting a practice. Written between 2007 and 2012, so check current rules and figures before acting on them.
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A CEO Describes the Business of Running a Hospital.
Carl Armato is the President and CEO of NovantHealth, Inc. He is one of the few CEOs who actually keep their employees informed about his views about the company and how it is run. This article…
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Physician Job Search: Tips and Advice
Since the physician job search is at its peak nowadays, I am posting a list of topics on physician job search, including physician employment contract etc. I hope summarizing them here will make it…
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Scams Targeting Medical Residents.
Have you been targeted by a scamster. Chances are you were and you didn’t even know. Here I am going to list some common scams, medical residents may become a target of. Many of these attempts I have…
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The Future of Physician Jobs in this Economy
With all the sectors taking a hit, what is happening to physician jobs? Let us try to delve deeper to find the answer. Healthcare is a resilient sector when it comes to an economic crisis. There are…
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Future of CareerMedicine.com
We have had fun time writing articles on CareerMedicine.com. Recently the AAFP approved CME activity “Starting a Medical Practice” was a great success. The seminar was held in Rock Hill, SC.…
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Danger Lurks Around With Every Signature!
The truckload of documents on my table every single day waiting to be signed. Some are prescription refills, other are papers from the scooter people and not to mention those requests for prior…
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All Doctors should learn this important skill!
The days of Doctors’ reputation of having a bad handwriting are ending. You will not be writing anymore. Medicare is forcing all medical practices and hospitals to go paperless by 2012. That will be…
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How to negotiate with medical vendors.
How should we negotiate with Medical Vendors. When you have your own medical practice and you will have to buy medical equipments and or Medical Services, you will find salesmen and coming in droves…
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How hard will you work after Medical Residency?
Since Childhood, everybody has chased the dream of having the workload lighten up once the education part of life is over. Same goes with medicine. Once into Medical School, we realize the amount of…
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Theory of Medical Pagers
LAW OF PAGING ORDERS The more orders you write, more pages you will get. Vice versa is also true: The more pages you get, more orders you will give. LAW OF SOCIAL PAGING Number of pages you get are…
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How to crack a tough clinical case
What to do when you are stuck with a tough clinical case? What if all labs and imaging that you do is not giving you an answer. You feel like a detective but not like Sherlock Holmes. Here are the…
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Are you late for physician job hunt? Last Minute Strategies
It is almost July and most of the residents should have landed a physician job. If not, but you are mulling over several physician job offers — then you are still good to go. But if you have not done…
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Why Should Physicians Have a Website? and How to Get One !
Technology is changing all around us. So is the way of doing business. More and more people are using internet to find what they want to find or shop. Patients used to search for doctors in the…
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Two Big Mistakes Graduating Medical Residents Make !
The two most common issues facing graduating medical residents are the ones that we will discuss in this post. As a graduating date is near, we all think about taking a break and also to postpone the…
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DESIGN A MEDICAL OFFICE SPACE series: Modifying a plan
Once you receive a medical office layout plan designed by your architect for the medical office, it is time to review it yourself and see if all of your major goals are met or not. If not then you…
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Change Medicine Series: Pagers are an outdated technology !
Every doctor has a pager. A doctor may not have a stethoscope, but he will definitely have a pager barely hanging to his belt, waiting for a chance to interrupt the doctor’s life. But the question…
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DESIGN A MEDICAL OFFICE SPACE series: Creating a Program
In continuation of the previous post on designing a medical office space, now is the time for the readers to participate in designing a medical office layout plan. Here is the outline of an empty…
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Design a Medical Office with us !
One day for those who realize the dream of starting their own medical practice will face the exciting opportunity to design their own medical office space. This is a primer article to kick off a…
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Buying Medical Equipment for your practice: Caution Advised !
If you own or run a medical practice, or plan to do so, one of the most frequent decision you will have to make is whether or not to buy or lease a medical equipment. As the cost of technology is…
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Comforting the patients – is it a Doctor’s job ?
Several times in a day, physicians find themselves in a situation breaking bad news to the patients. At other times, physicians are informing patients about a preliminary results which needs further…
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Inter-Physician Marketing- Tips and Techniques
If you are a Primary Care physician, then Inter-Physician Marketing can boost the growth of your medical practice. If you are a specialist, inter-physician marketing is a must for you. Whether you…
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INTER-PHYSICIAN MARKETING – What is it ?
One of the goals of CareerMedicine (www.CareerMedicine.com) is to talk about topics which even we physicians hesitate to talk about. Physicians not only market their medical practice to patients, but…
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Medical Office Building: Stand Alone or Medical Complex?
If you are planning to be in a private practice of your own, you need to choose an office space. Medical Office space can be leased or bought. I prefer to lease for first few years until things…
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Why Documentation is Important ?
Just like the payors continue to get miserly to pay the doctors, the hospitals are facing such problems too. The video news content is worth watching. If you do not document a decubitus ulcer if…
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10 Important Tips for Medical Doctors Who Pursue Entrepreneurial Endeavors
The following list of great tips are sent to me by Rock. This is what they teach in the MBAs and MHAs. Rock is a Master of Health Administration student. I am publishing it verbatim (well almost…
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Eight big mistakes medical residents make
We all went through the medical residency programs and did just fine. But there is always more that we could have learnt or done in the medical residency years. Medical residency is a great place to…
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Timing your partnership in the medical practice
Many a times, an inexperienced physician is excited to find an offer of physician job where partnership is offered after the first year. Now just because he is going to become a partner aka owner of…
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Partnership in medical practice: Pros and Cons
Every graduating medical student has dreamt of owning a medical practice. It is the ultimate goal of becoming a physician. Why do most, if not all physicians want to own their practice. There are…
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Become the greatest Code Blue Leader of all times !
Everyone remembers the first Code Blue they had to lead. It is a surreal experience where everyone is freaking out and everything is overwhelming. It is the place where psychology meets technology.…
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Innovative Way of Physician Job Search – Direct Mail
Dr Matthias Muenzer is a blogger who writes regularly on the topic of Physician job search. He has a collection of tips for physician job search on his website http;//www.obgyntips.blogspot.com. One…
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Tips for becoming a popular Doctor (continued)
The biggest tip for becoming a popular Doctor among your patients is here . Now we will discuss the other reasons why some Doctors are more liked by their patients than others. These are the habits…
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Tips for becoming a popular doctor- and improve patient care (LESSON I)
Most physicians think that if they treat the medical ailment of a patient, they will become popular with the patients. Now that my be true if you are a cardiologist and did an emergency cath to save…
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Becoming a popular doctor: What is in it for you?
Most human beings strive to become popular. It is a way to get attention in this world. But should a doctor strive to be popular amongst his patients ? Why? But why doctors are usually arrogant and…
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Interview with a physician recruiter: Shedding light on the mysterious callers
Almost every physician and graduating resident have received calls from a physician recruiter. Who are these mysterious callers and why they do what they do? We decided to Interview Bob Eskridge,…
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A letter from a physician recruiter
A comment was left on this website by a physician recruiter in response to my post on ‘Physician Recruiters: Whose side are they on?’ and ‘Physician Recruiters: How to use them to your advantage‘. I…
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Physician Recruiters: How to use them to your advantage?
In my last post, we discussed the various conflicts of interest involving the physician recruiters, the physician employee and the physician candidate. But you should not completely cut them out of…
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Physician recruiters: Whose side are they on?
Do you get hundreds of phone calls from various physician recruiters? Ever wondered whose side are they on? Let us find out. Physician recruiters are salespeople. There job is to sell you a…
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What to do in the last six months of medical residency?
If you are a third year resident then more than likely you have about six months left to complete the medical residency program. If you have not yet landed a physician job, then that is a priority.…
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Holidays are here. Jumpstart your PR campaign
Holidays are here again. It is a great time to organize a great PR campaign for your medical practice. Usually sending card out to the doctors in your area is akin to spamming, EXCEPT in the holiday…
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Murky waters of out-sourced medical billing
As a continuation of the previous article, this article will explore the pros and cons of outsourced medical billing for your office vs.. inhouse medical biling. At first I was planning to just write…
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Starting a Medical Practice: Understanding medical billing
We are almost done with setting up the medical practice. Now you have your staff ready , credentialing done , office space , medical insurance contracts, business corporation set up as well as your…
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Starting a medical practice: Getting Hospital Privileges
Many medical insurance companies will require MDs to hold hospital privileges to qualify to be part of their medical network. If you want to do surgical procedures or round at the hospital, hospital…
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Starting a Medical Practice: Understanding Medical Insurance Payers
Before we go into more details of revenue generation in a medical practice, let me introduce you to the payers. The term ‘payers’ is a professional slang used by us doctors referring to the medical…
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Starting a Medical Practice: Credentialing with Insurance Companies
CREDENTIALING according to wikipedia is defined as the administrative process for validating the qualifications of licensed professionals, organizational members or organizations. This is the fun…
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Starting a Medical Practice: Interviewing for the new staff
Once you get enough candidates to apply ( Refer to these articles for how to hire your new medical staff ), the next challenge is to sift through the applications to find out who is best suited staff…
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Starting a Medical Practice: Hiring your first staff PART-2
We will now talk about advertising your medical office job positions effectively, so you can get some good job applicants pool. Here are a few methods to look for suitable job applicants for your…
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Starting a Medical Practice: Hiring your first staff – PART 1
Now you are getting close to opening your doors for business. Your company is formed, medical office vendors are lined up, attorneys and accountants are ready. It is time for you to hire your medical…
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Starting a Medical Practice: How to find medical supplies
One of the best kept secret in the business of medicine is where to find the suppliers of medical supplies? There are lot of companies which cater to medical offices, physicians, hospitals etc. But…
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Starting a Medical Practice: How much loan to ask for?
BUSINESS DIES IF CASH FLOW DRIES: quote by me!!. When you go to a bank to ask for loan for starting your medical practice, what is the usual thought process? There is a tendency to ask for minimum…
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Starting a Medical Practice: to Lease or to Buy the medical office
Now you have funding. Lets start spending it. But carefully! Remember you have to return the OPM after you use it. Should you buy an office space right now or lease a medical office space. If you…
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Starting a Medical Practice: Getting Financed and the secret of OPM
Since cash flow is the lifeline of a business, you cannot start one without it. This is the single most deterrent which stops many physicians from opening their own practice. When you put your money…
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Starting a Medical Practice: Learning Small Business
I was discussing this with a general surgeon yesterday. We both agreed that the biggest deficit physicians have is not ‘how to run a medical practice’ but ‘how to run a small business’. I believe the…
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Personal Finance for Medical Residents
Let’s take a break from ‘starting a medical practice series’. I will talk about what is personal finance and why medical residents should start taking financial responsibility ASAP. Here are the…
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Starting a Medical Practice: Hiring the henchmen –the attorney and the accountant.
Before you start a practice you will need to get an attorney and an accountant. They both have unique roles in your business and many a times work synergistically. The attorney is responsible for…
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Starting a Medical Practice: Name it right, the first time !
So lets get to the first step. Naming your new medical practice. This is where emotions and trademarks collide. One of the funniest thing to do will be to name the medical practice after your name or…
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Starting a Medical Practice: Bird’s eye view
It has been hard for us doctors to find out information about how to start a medical practice. Well! Not anymore. I will be writing more on how to start a medical practice from scratch. Most of the…
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Starting your own Medical Practice after Residency
If you want to start your own medical practice after residency here are the few options you have to satisfy your entrepreneurial urge: 1) LOCATION: Decide where would you like to practice medicine.…
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Starting a Medical Practice right after residency. Is it Possible?
One of our readers about to graduate emailed me this question. The question is : "Is it possible to start a medical practice right after a residency program? My answer to this question is:…
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Running a Medical Practice. Is it a business?
We physicians are really not taught anything about business in our medical school or residency programs. That is one of the biggest reasons why almost all of the residents end up looking for…
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Strategies to consider while negotiating
PRINCIPLES OF PHYSICIAN CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS: It is always a good idea to read a book on negotiations before you try to negotiate a contract. But here are few pointers to help you out: START HIGH.…
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The art of physician job contract negotiations
WHO SHOULD NEGOTIATE? Most the medical residents or physicians shy away from negotiations during their physician job search and would want their lawyers to negotiate with the employer. But remember…
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How to get ready for your first physician job
After your physician employment contract is signed there is still a lot to do so you can start the new physician job on time. Proactive approach from the physician employee is always appreciated.…
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PREDICTION on salary trends: Family Practice
There is a shortage of primary care. and it is going to get worse as the US population reaches 50 million. Number of physician visits are directly proportional to the population. As the population…
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Contract Negotiations
Welcome to the world of business. For us physicians, negotiating seems to be trivial, too downgrading a process reserved only for self centered people, selfish enough to ask what they want. WRONG!…
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Should I get my Physician Employment Contract reviewed??
Every single day we commit ourselves to a contract – it can be expressed or implied. When you drop your clothes to the dry cleaner, when you send in your car for repair, when you buy a cup of coffee…
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Physician employment Benefits
Compensation as a physician employee consists of salary plus benefits. You need to know what benefits you can get before you begin negotiations. If the physician employer is not willing to raise the…
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Physician Employment Contract
Ah! At last the dotted line. Hopefully by now you have the physician employment contract in your hand. This section helps you understand a Physician Employment Contract (PEC) also called Physician…
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FRAUD ALERT: Medispa business for physicians
For several reasons we physicians are an easy target for scamsters. We as physicians trust people easily, we have money (may not be the truth anymore), we are poor businessmen (Finally lets admit it–…
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Partnership in Medicine
PARTNERSHIP TRACK: If you are moving to a physician job opportunity where you may want to stay permanently then partnership track is recommended. You would want to be part-owner of the medical…
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Personal factors to consider in evaluating a Job Opportunity
Many a times I have been asked by medical residents going into a new practice that how does one know that the medical job is the right one. While you may feel a physician job opening is not right for…
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Reading the Physician Recruiters Ads
Well, on a lighter note , here is the code for understanding those mailers sent to you by the Physician recruiters: 1) Located in the heart of paradise = a very very rural area. 2) Charm of a small…
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PREDICTION on salary trends: Radiology
Radiology was an underpaid medical specialty in the early 1990s. Then came the redemption in the mid 90s. Number of imaging done in the hospital increased multi-fold. Hospitals and Doctors felt the…
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Evaluating a Physician job opportunity from a Business standpoint
1) SALARY: That is a no brainer. You need higher salary to pay off your loans and to live comfortably as well as save for retirement. Also make sure your time is adequately compensated. You are not…
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The Interview Dress Code
DRESS CODE “To be successful, look successful” Men : Conservative business suit (preferably two different ones for more than one dayphysician job interviews!). If you have only one suit then change…
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PREDICTION on Salary trends series: INTERNAL MEDICINE
Layout in the business of medicine is changing rapidly. Historically also every 8-10 years there is always a significant change in policy and market trend which makes a noticeable change in the…
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In the restaurant with prospective physician employers
THE RESTAURANT In interviews for private practice openings, most of the discussions regarding salary, benefits, job requirements etc take place over a lunch or a dinner at an upscale restaurant.…
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THE RENDEZVOUS – Handling the Physician Job Interview
THE SCENARIO Private : Most physician job interviews for private medical practice are conducted over one to two days, one day being more common. The job interview of physicians is generally informal.…
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The Do’s and Dont’s in a job interview (Summary)
Here are the pointers from my previoius post on the job interview process THE DO’S Be punctual Give a firm hand shake Do not interrupt when someone is talking Listen Make notes Keep pagers and cell…
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Getting your job application ready
Fortunately the application process to apply for a physician job is very simple. All you need is a cover letter and a resume or curriculum vitae . There is no need to send your credentials,…
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How to handle physician job telephone interview
Before a face-to-face interview the physician candidates the prospective employers screen them over the phone. This is because interviewing involves a significant monetary and time commitment. Hence…
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Physician Job Hunting Timeline
Introduction What is the right time to start a physician job search? This question haunts every final year medical resident. There is one myth that needs to be clarified. Most of us are not sure how…
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Some Phone Interview Etiquettes
To return these physician job telephone interview calls try to go in a quiet room. If you accidentally find yourself at a noisy nurse station, then excuse yourself and offer to call them back right…
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The Physician Job Interview process
INTRODUCTION Hiring decisions in the world of medicine are not made without face-to-face interviews . Interviewing techniques for the academia and the private sector differ markedly. The expectations…
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Tips on writing a Cover Letter
Cover letter is a very important part of your physician employment application. Your application has only two papers in it, which is your cover letter and your resume or curriculum vitae. The…
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What the Physician employers want
As a candidate for a physician job you make an assessment largely based on background research, compensation, and location etc. most of which you know beforehand. The prospective employer makes a…