Healthcare Career Blog, Physician Blogs

Leapfrog’s Announces Top Hospitals for 2009

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 15.12.2009 | Category Healthcare Career Blog, Hospitals, Locum Tenens, Physicians, Retired Physician, Surveys, healthcare reform, jobs

The Leapfrog Group released its 2009 list of the nation’s best hospitals. Leapfrog’s top hospitals are determined using information gathered from the organization’s free, voluntary hospital survey. The survey assesses hospitals based on criteria involving both safety and efficiency practices. Top hospitals must meet standards for Computerized Physician Order Entry systems (CPOE), which have been shown to reduce medication errors by 85%, as well as for ICU staffing and complex procedure performance. New to the survey this year are criteria regarding hospital efficiency; these criteria are based on the quality of patient outcomes, lengths of stay, re-admission rates, and occurrences of hospital-acquired infections.

The Leapfrog survey is intended to educate patients and medical providers, but is also used to initiate improvements in health care reliability, affordability, and safety. While hospitals are not required to participate in this survey, the Journal of the Joint Commission reports that the hospitals that choose to participate in the Leapfrog survey have lower mortality rates and better quality of care than those who decline to respond.

Among this year’s top hospitals are the Mayo Clinics in Rochester, MN, and Phoenix, AZ; various Kaiser Permanente Hospitals throughout California; University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore; Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA; and many more.

Not only can patients use the Leapfrog comparisons to be better informed when choosing a local top hospital, but medical practitioners can also use this survey and other data on the nation’s best hospitals in their own searches for new physician jobs.

Visit Candidate Direct to search for permanent or locum tenens job postings in some of the nation’s top hospitals.

Retired Physician Career Opportunities with Locum Tenens

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 09.12.2009 | Category Anesthesiology jobs, Healthcare Career Blog, Locum Tenens, Medical doctor jobs, OB/GYN physician jobs, Physicians, Retired Physician, Surgery jobs

Locum tenens is ideal both for doctors in search of 20 or 30 hours of practice and for providers looking to supplement quality patient care. Top salaries are available, along with malpractice insurance, housing, paid travel and competitive benefits.

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Physician Salary

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 01.12.2009 | Category Healthcare Career Blog, Locum Tenens, Medical doctor jobs, OB/GYN physician jobs, Physician Career Path, Physicians, healthcare software, jobs

Despite the current economic climate, health care positions are still in great need. According to Medical Group Management Association, physician salaries continued to show a modest increase throughout 2008.

Of course not all physician jobs showed the same demand and salary increase. Though there continues to be a shortage of primary care physicians, including family practitioners, general internists, and pediatricians, general practitioners continue to show the smallest salary increases, while cardiac and neurosurgeons show the highest trends in physician salaries.

Locum tenens physicians also find themselves in these higher earning categories. Leading staffing agency, Candidate Direct, offers great benefits for locum tenens positions, including private housing, transportation, and malpractice insurance. Locum tenens jobs are posted on their easily searchable database and advertised on their live RSS feed, which sends updates on new physician job opportunities. The Candidate Direct website also offers links to financial resources to help physicians make the most of their salaries in these difficult economic times. Physicians can also increase their earnings by signing up for per diem shifts using Candidate Direct Stay Staffed Internal Staffing Management Software, which shows new shift openings in real time.

Locum tenens jobs offer the perfect career opportunity for young physicians just starting out and for retired physicians wanting to keep up with their careers, as well as for anyone looking to travel and earn strong benefits. Visit Candidate Direct to apply online today.

Candidate Direct Physician Staffing Offers Easy Search of Locum Tenens and Permanent MD Jobs

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 24.09.2009 | Category Healthcare Career Blog, Locum Tenens, Physicians

Physician job seekers can visit Candidate Direct’s new physician jobs board or browse through the company’s  physician career resources page with its innovative real-time physician job listings.  Job seekers can review position requirements and facility descriptions as well as a brief sketch of the area where the healthcare facility is located. MD’s looking for permanent positions or locum tenens jobs can narrow their search or browse through the whole list. If a job interests them, they can apply online, all the while knowing they’ll be contacted almost immediately by a Candidate Direct representative ready to facilitate a job search

And if physicians don’t see the exact job they’re looking for, they can use the unique “Design a Job” feature to send their ideal job specs straight to Candidate Direct’s physician placement experts.

“We work hard to place physicians in their desired locations,” said Robert L. Bok, Candidate Direct’s Chief Executive Officer. “We have access to physician job openings in metropolitan destinations like New York, Chicago, and Miami. Or if a physician is looking for a more small-town feel, we have positions in rural and community hospitals throughout the country.”

Backed by 25 years of medical staffing expertise, Candidate Direct specializes in locum tenens jobs and permanent medical doctor jobs that advance the goals of physicians and their employers. Candidate Direct’s affiliate staffing company, Travel Force, which specializes in placement of rehabilitation therapists, offers a similar therapy jobs search for candidates in that field. Read the latest Travel Force press release about therapy jobs search tool.

HHS Regulations Updated to Include Notification of Patient Record Security Breaches

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 17.09.2009 | Category Healthcare Career Blog, Hospitalist physician, Locum Tenens, Physicians, healthcare reform, jobs

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently updated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (commonly known as HIPAA). The new regulation requires healthcare providers and other covered entities to  notify patients if the confidentiality of their health records is breached. The new requirement is designed to increase consumer confidence in the personal security of electronic medical records, as the industry moves more and more data online. One way or another, the nature of  physician jobs is always changing.

Many physicians agree that paper record-keeping can be inefficient and can compromise the accuracy, speed and portability of patient care. However, there are major obstacles to conversion to digital record-keeping —  including cost and privacy issues. With the current administration in Washington pushing for electronic medical records, these concerns have moved front and center.

Not only are more patient records moving online, so too are physician’s professional records — including credentialing and peer review information. You and the various organizations with which you work should be taking measures to ensure the privacy of patient and staff information.  Locum tenens and hospitalists have a particular interest in electronic record keeping, due to the mobile nature of their jobs.

You can learn more about HHS privacy regulations here: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/