Healthcare Career Blog, Physician Blogs

Physician Jobs Lead to Substantial Student Loan Repayment Award

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 31.03.2009 | Category Colorado Physician Jobs, Education, Locum Tenens, Medical doctor jobs, OB GYN jobs, Physician Career Path, Physician Recruitment, Physicians, Pschyriatry Jobs

As the doctor shortage worsens in rural and high-need areas nationwide, states are stepping up incentives to recruit physicians of all types. New York State alone has pledged $22 million to its Doctors Across New York Program and Michigan is working hard to abate a projected physician shortage of 6,000 doctors over the next ten years. Physician recruitment agencies are focused on these areas and fast-tracking physician specialists for permanent and locum tenens jobs.

Why offer payback incentives in a field known for high salaries? The simple fact is, practicing medicine in what the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services refers to as a designated Health Professional Shortage Area – or underserved market – isn’t as lucrative as physician jobs located in larger market areas. So, in exchange for student loan payback incentives, qualifying doctors agree to work in shortage areas for three to five years and dedicate one-third of their practice to treating patients with Medicaid, Medicare or no insurance at all, depending on the requirements of individual state and federal payback programs.

The Colorado Health Foundation’s Physician Loan Repayment Program is currently awarding eligible doctors up to $50,000 a year for a maximum of three years if they serve in a qualified rural or urban Colorado community. Currently, 57 percent of the state’s 64 counties lack enough primary-care physicians to sufficiently serve the population. The program awarded more than $2 million to 18 physicians in 2008. Physician recruitment agencies are ideal sources to find physician jobs and locum tenens opportunities in these areas as well as highly coveted positions located in Metropolitan areas.

Student loan payback incentives have been around for a few years. After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the state of Louisiana developed the Greater New Orleans Health Service Corps, an organization offering incentives of up to $110,000, including student loan repayment and income guarantees to doctors, dentists and other medical professionals willing to work in post-disaster conditions – a move to lure needed doctors into the ravaged city and to stanch an outmigration of doctors eyeing greener pastures. The federal government provided $15 million to finance the Louisiana program and the state awarded 81 grants to attract physicians for primary care medical doctor jobs, OB GYN jobs, psychiatry jobs, dentists and a handful of nurses and counselors.

For doctors less interested in pay and more inclined to utilize their skills to help what most would consider the underprivileged, states across the country have various programs in place that offer doctors loan repayment in exchange for medical services. Oregon’s Rural Health Services Loan Repayment Program offers to repay 20 to 25 percent of the loan principle for health professionals who agree to work in a rural
hospital, a rural health clinic or pharmacy located in either a federally designated Health Professional Shortage Area or state designated Area of Unmet Health Care.

For doctors not interested in practicing medicine, The National Institute for Health offers health professionals up to $35,000 in student loan repayment for a commitment as a medical researcher. Not such a bad deal, say loan payback proponents.

Thinking of creating a new medical device to save lives around the world? Read how one MIT graduate asked the question differently…

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 10.03.2009 | Category Medical Gadgets, Physicians

Instead of saying, ‘I’m a mechanical engineer, what kind of device can I build,’ I should be saying “Who are the people working in the settings I want to work in?’”

MIT graduate student Joaquin Blaya, went back to his native country, Chile, to figure out how he could best apply his education and help the people he loved.

What he found was an outdated system of tracking patient information that took on average three or more weeks to reach the doctor. This is the way it worked: four healthcare workers went out in the field to visit 100 healthcare centers. They would document the patients’ progress, return back to their offices to transcribe the results and then forward these written reports to doctors for follow up. These efforts took on average three weeks and up to an incredible three months time to reach the physician!

Blaya’s solution? Simple, he helped launch a research project in Lima, Peru where the tracking data was recorded by healthcare workers into a hand held PDA. Once a week, these traveling healthcare workers would download their PDAs into their office computers and send the reports directly to the physician.

This process reduced the average reporting time from 23 days to 8 days! And also, reduced errors and lost paper trails.
“You can monitor patients in a more timely way. It also prevents results from getting lost,” says Blaya, a PhD student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST).

Researchers reported that getting timely and accurate lab results “is essential to determine if a patient is responding to treatment and, if not, to alert physicians to the possible need for medication changes.”

Peruvian health care workers enthusiastically embraced the program, which started in two of Lima’s districts and has now been expanded to all five. In addition to saving time, the handheld devices are also more cost-effective than the paper-based system, the researchers reported to Infectious Disease Specialists and Pulmonologists in the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

Locum tenens physicians in the U.S. today are using PDAs for patient tracking and more. With software purchases of $75 or less, a medical doctor can purchase software for nearly every professional specialty. Consider this:

“Anesthesia ToolBox 7.0” provides invaluable medical information necessary for Anesthesiologists who work in the Emergency, ICU/CCU, Pre-Hospital, or Critical Care setting. It enables the user to perform instant calculations for drug dosages, administer anesthetic or sedation during medical procedures, monitor patients before, during, and after anesthesia and counteract adverse reactions or complications.

Besides ongoing education, professionals today count on PDA resources with advanced medical doctor job software and technology.

Check out this consumer report on PDA features that do more than just record data.

With so many great technology products on the market today, this story enlightens many of us, that sometimes asking a question differently, creates an opportunity to apply what we already know works. In today’s online world and community, the simplest questions often hold the answers to solving existing problems. That’s why we blog and share information with our friends and co-workers, it is to create ‘community’ and to get involved. And who knows, maybe some of these ideas will make a difference in the lives of many along the way…In the mean time, if you are working in the healthcare field, there are some great new medical gadgets out there to check out!

Why are Primary Care Physicians in High Demand for Locum Tenens Jobs?

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 06.03.2009 | Category Medical doctor jobs, Physician Career Path, Physicians

Findings cite that poor doctor morale and staffing practice issues have caused many physicians to reconsider their career options.

• Doctor morale is low and physicians are seeking ways to curtail the amount of time they spend working, according to a survey of 12,000 doctors from the Physicians’ Foundation, Boston.
• 41% of primary care respondents - about 9,000 doctors - said if they could choose their career again, they would go into a surgical or diagnostic specialty.
• 50% of respondents say they plan to take steps that would limit patient access in the next three years—either retire, work part time, close their practices, eliminate certain payers or work locum tenens.

At the same time, industry sources state the highest demand for medical doctor jobs exist in these top 10 areas for physicians seeking permanent or locum tenens jobs:

• Primary Care
• Internal Medicine
• Hospitalist
• OB/GYN
• Orthopedic Surgery
• Radiology
• Psychiatry
• Emergency Medicine
• Neurology
• General Surgery

Where are the jobs? All across the country, experts have determined. Nationwide openings exist for qualified physicians in a multitude of medical settings including:

• Urban hospitals
• Rural clinics
• Medical schools
• Managed care
• Doctor’s groups
• Private practice

With top salary and benefits, new patient care settings, and the opportunity to pursue quality of life activities, medical doctors are finding locum tenens employment provides fresh perspectives and boosts morale in the process.

Who accepts locum tenens medical doctor jobs?

Almost half of all physicians who engage locum tenens jobs do it for the flexible schedule. Other reasons include travel opportunities, extra income and to expand clinical horizons.

• Mid-career physicians use locum tenens jobs to bridge the income gap while searching for a permanent physician staffing position.
• Seasoned physicians use locum tenens medical doctor jobs as a means of scaling back on work load without fully retiring. This enables excellent earnings while practicing medicine in a variety of healthcare markets and environments.
• All physicians in search of diversifying their medical experience, pursuing research and working with various cultures and socioeconomic classes

Talk to an experienced locum tenens agency today for more information and find out if locum tenens employment is right for you.

Sources

Merritt Hawkins & Associates: Summary Report Review of Physician & CRNA Recruiting Incentives

Hospitals & News Network: SURVEY: DOCTORS TO CURTAIL PRACTICES

How to Become a Licensed & Board Certified Physician

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 05.03.2009 | Category Board Certification, Education, Healthcare Career Blog, Licenses, Locum Tenens, Medical doctor jobs, Physician Career Path, Physicians

A licensed and board certified physician must complete specific stages of medical education and meet internship requirements to become a fully licensed and board certified physician. Those stages are:

• Pre-medical
• Medical school
• Sub-internship
• Internship
• Residency
• Fellowship
• Pre-medical
• Medical school
• Sub-internship
• Internship
• Residency
• Fellowship

Board certification includes these elements:

• Licensure
• Continuing medical education

What are the pathways recommended to obtain a medical degree to practice and work as a physician in the United States?

• Medicine (MD)
• Osteopathic (DO)
• (IMG)

What kinds of degrees can be obtained?

• Doctor of Medicine
• Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine
• MD/PhD or DO/PhD

What exams are required to become a licensed physician?

• MCAT
• COMLEX
• Step 1, 2CE, 2PE, 3
• USMLE
• Step 1, 2CK, 2CS, 3

What are the regulatory bodies that govern the education and licensing of physicians in the United States?

• Association of American Medical College
• American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine
• National Resident Matching Program
• National Matching Service
• Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
• Liaison Committee on Medical Education
• Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation
• Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education
• American Osteopathic Association
• American Medical Association

Medical doctor jobs are available to licensed and board certified physicians to work as permanent physicians and/or locum tenens in hospitals and healthcare facilities throughout the United States.

See Medical doctor jobs and locum tenens specialties

What organizations can medical students belong to in college that will help them advance their education?

Student groups include:

• American Medical Student Association
• Alpha Omega Alpha
• Sigma Sigma Phi
• Student National Medical Association

Hospitals make Fortune list of best companies to work for Physician Locum Tenens Jobs

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 03.03.2009 | Category Hospitals, Locum Tenens, Physical Therapist, Travel Nurses

Fortune magazine’s 2009 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For includes 13 hospitals and health systems across the country. Selection is based on an employee survey and the organization’s pay and benefits, hiring practices, internal communications, training, recognition and diversity efforts. Jobs for locum tenens, travel nurses, and travel therapists are available at many of these prominent organizations with a top locum tenens agency.

Top 2009 best hospitals list