Clinical practice versus hospital practice
Clinical practice versus hospital practice
Written by Tiffany Young Monday, 07 January 2008
According to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, physicians increasingly practice in groups or health care organizations that provide backup coverage and allow for more time off.
Group practices, or clinics, allow doctors to work regular office hours without having to run a business.
“They come in every day, and they just work with patients,” said Ronnie Costello, clinic manager at Austin Regional Clinic Anderson Mill. “They don’t have to be businessmen. The benefit is they just do medicine, which is what they trained for. Just because you’re a great doctor doesn’t mean you’re a great businessman.”
For instance, doctors at clinics do not have to worry about hiring staff, ordering supplies, billing patients or collecting reimbursement from insurance companies — all of that is taken care of by the clinic manager.
Most doctors who work at clinics train to be in a family-office setting knowing they will go into a clinic, just as hospitalists, or inpatient physicians, train to work in a hospital. Some doctors choose to start their own business, or a solo practice. While self-employed physicians tend to have higher median incomes, they also must provide their own health insurance and retirement.
“As a solo practitioner you either do it yourself or you have to hire someone to do it,” Gerald Fincken, D.O., at Austin Regional Clinic Far West said. “When I was young and first out of residency, I didn’t know much about the business side of medicine, and I definitely could see the financial security of a multi-specialty group.”
Though clinics have many family doctors on staff, Austin Regional Clinic also has specialists and hospitalists on its staff. Specialists, such as surgeons, typically have blocks of time set aside for surgeries in nearby hospitals.
Another benefit to working in a clinic is the relationships with other doctors and with the patients who come to the clinic.
“The cool part about being a part of a group is that we have an organized system,” Costello said. “It creates some checks and balances because we’re a part of a group. When we refer someone to a specialist, we know the standards of care. We don’t have to wonder what we’re getting.”
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