Quote:
|
Originally Posted by TheMercenary
Maybe we just know different people but this is hardly my experience. In one private practice clinic where I work 4 doctors make up the practice, any 2 or 3 of them are there every day 5 days a week, plus a Nurse Practitioner and some times a PA. Everyone of them sees 40 to 65 patients every day. And they are specialists. Few specialists have the kind of time they can just sit around and have lazy days on their boats. They all work 7 days a week seeing patients in the hospital on a rotational basis. They take 24 hour call Mon thru Thurs and 72 hour call on a rotational basis. Malpractice is well over $100,000 a year. They have a staff of over 30 in this one office, from RN's to clerks and an office manager. The office is open from 830 am to when ever they are done, usually around 5 pm. How long do you think it takes to get an education to start and run a practice like this? How about the personal and financial costs associated with getting the education? Pick a specialty and I will give you an idea of the time it takes to get that specialty. The idea that most docs live the Life of Reilly is a misnomer in my experience. The hours are long and most people could never keep up.
|
Aren't most of the specialists you know OB-GYNs? As you note, their malpractice insurance rates are exhorbitant, and far worse than the rest of the industry. I've said before that needs to be curbed.
Why do they need a staff of 30? Is it possible that many, if not most of those employees are hired specifically to deal with chasing down payment from bullshit insurance companies? Wouldn't certain reforms allow them to have a smaller staff and lower operating costs?
And I'm sorry to tell you, but 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM are not excruciating hours. My husband works from about 8:30 AM until 7:30 PM, and usually comes home with more work to do. And his industry does the on-call thing, too, so he's in that rotation as well. Ask Lumberjim what kind of hours he worked this weekend.
My experience is that most private-practice doctors (again, other than OB-GYNs) do not go on call--they have an answering service that will leave a message for an on call nurse, who will call you back to let you know whether your problem can wait until morning, or you should go to the ER.