Healthcare Career Blog, Physician Blogs

Locum Tenens ideal for retired physicians looking to rejoin the workforce

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 10.07.2009 | Category Anesthesiology jobs, CRNA, Colorado Physician Jobs, Emergency jobs, Family Medicine, Healthcare Career Blog, Hospitalist physician, Internal Medicine, Locum Tenens, Medical doctor jobs, OB GYN jobs, OB/GYN physician jobs, Orthopedic Surgery, Physician Career Path, Physician Shortage, Physicians, Pschyriatry Jobs, Retired Physician, Surgery jobs, jobs

Coming out of retirement isn’t easy for anyone. Especially for doctors who haven’t practiced in a while.

Doctors looking to re-enter the workforce after a brief career solstice face a number of challenges. Depending on how many years you’ve been out, you may have to catch up on continuing education credits, learn new technologies and be flexible in your medical setting. Either way, the medical profession beckons your skills, even if just for two to three shifts a week.

What’s the solution for a doctor coming out of retirement?

First thing, says Dennis Urbanski, American Traveler Managing Director, is to find a locum tenens agency experienced in matching older physicians with the medical facilities that need them.

“With the physician shortage the way it is, putting a retired doctor back in the workforce is a godsend.”

Urbanski says 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 mal practice insurance, housing, paid travel and competitive locum tenens benefits.

Urbanski suggests that older, retired doctors make a realistic assessment of their current skill set prior to calling a locum tenens agency. This helps recruiters determine the most efficient course for re-entry and employment. Typically, physicians out of work for a year or less are easier to employ than those who haven’t practiced for two years and more. This, of course, depends on specialty, said Urbanski.

“Hospitalist jobs, for instance, are ideal for doctors coming out of retirement. For those who possess the needed proficiency in inpatient medicine – and who don’t mind working weekends or night shifts – there are hundreds if not thousands of available jobs.”

Once thing retired doctors must consider prior to re-entering the workforce, say experts, is that things will not be the same as when they left. A doctor may find physician jobs in rural areas easier to get than in big city hospitals and university settings. Conversely, high-need areas of the country, often associated with low-income households, are quicker to employ retired physicians because of needed skills and an increased demand for healthcare.

“There are plenty of jobs out there for doctors, retired or not,” said Urbanski. The challenge is; effectively marketing their skills among locations and medical settings in demand. Hospitalist jobs and primary care jobs are hot right now.”

Last month alone, 20,000 people searched Google for locum tenens and more than 27,000 searched for hospitalist jobs.

Find physician reentry resources

Help! How Do I Return from Physician Retirement so I can find Physician Jobs in my Specialty?

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 28.04.2009 | Category Anesthesiology jobs, Emergency jobs, Family Medicine, Hospitalist physician, Internal Medicine, Medical doctor jobs, OB GYN jobs, OB/GYN physician jobs, Orthopedic Surgery, Surgery jobs

A happy, enriching retirement always makes a physician’s short list of financial goals, but the reality is not that perfect. Retirement can be a moving target, even more so for physicians than for other professionals.

Those were the days physicians could plan for worriless retirement life. Not anymore! At least not for now, with the country and the world financial problems even wealthy physicians might have to get back to work and postpone their retirement plans. The good news is that there is plenty of work waiting for experienced physicians nationwide; physicians have permanent job options and locum tenens jobs in all specialties.

Medical Doctor Jobs with the greatest demand today are found in Family Medicine; Internal Medicine jobs; Hospitalist physician; Emergency jobs; Anesthesiology jobs; OB/GYN physician jobs; Surgery jobs and more.

In addition, another factor that also keeps physicians in the workforce for a longer period of time is their passion for medicine. However, if a physician is already retired and decides to get back to work, un-retiring is often far more complicated than seeing if the lab coat still fits. Between landing a suitable practice situation, updating your certifications and licenses, and finding a company willing to underwrite a liability insurance policy, there are many issues facing a physician trying to reenter the work force.

Below are just a few questions and answers physicians should know before re-entering the work force:

Q: How does a physician get re-licensed after retirement to work in a locum tenens job?

• If you’ve been out of practice for a few years, you might have to get yourself re-licensed, get caught up on all the continuing medical education you missed, and perhaps join a formal re-entry program.
• If you haven’t seen a patient from 18 to 36 months it is even tougher. If you have three good references and practiced in the last year or so there should be less of a problem.

Q: What are State Requirements for retired physicians to re-enter and search for locum tenens jobs?

• Arizona does not require a re-entry program.
• The North Carolina Medical Board has one of the more stringent programs. Any physician who has been out of clinical practice for two or more years must meet with a board to work on a plan for re-entry. The plan usually includes working with a doctor-mentor in their same specialty for about six months. However, there is no cost to the physician, who can be earning a salary during this time.
• Some states require physicians who have not practiced for several years to enter re-entry programs that can cost between $5,500 and $30,000.

Q: Need to Know More?

Check out physician resources at Locum Physician Career Information, or talk to a physician staffing expert regarding your personal and professional goals in pursuing locum tenens physician jobs Backed by 25 years of health care staffing excellence, Candidate Direct places top physicians in locum tenens medical doctor jobs where they’re needed most.

What is the Most Likely Reason Rural Communities have Physician Shortages?

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 13.04.2009 | Category Hospitals, Locum Tenens, Medical doctor jobs, OB GYN jobs, Orthopedic Surgery, Physician Career Path, Physician Shortage, Physicians

If we were on the popular tv game show Family Feud (now hosted by John O’Hurley, of Seinfeld fame), the question might be put to us this way:

Name a reason that big cities tend to have more doctors than rural communities:

Would you name either of these two reasons?

• Affluent areas pay higher salaries than rural areas
• Physicians tend to settle down near the place they were trained

And the Survey Says …

Both! Affluent communities in and around big cities are where the majority of medical schools and teaching hospitals are located. As doctors leave school and move forward with their careers in physician residency jobs, they tend to settle near the large teaching hospitals where they trained.

For example, San Francisco and Washington DC are loaded with medical schools, as well as high-income residents:

• San Francisco, California, had 117 primary care doctors per 100,000 residents.
• Washington, D.C., had 102 primary care doctors per 100,000 residents

Whereas, in these more rural communities with fewer medical schools and lower household income:

• McAllen, Texas, had just 45 primary care doctors per 100,000 residents
• El Paso, Texas, had 47 primary care doctors per 100,000 residents

Who were the researchers that did the study?

The nonprofit group that conducted the survey was The Dartmouth Atlas, funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The purpose of this group is to provide research, information and analysis about hospitals, doctors and healthcare markets.

For the research, the nonprofit group evaluated 306 regions nationwide, using data from the government, the American Medical Association, and the American Hospital Association.

The study also found that areas with more doctors tend to have a decreasing amount of hospital beds. But some rural areas have far more beds per capita than more heavily populated areas. For example:

• San Francisco suburb of San Mateo had 1.45 hospital beds per 1,000 residents
• While Mississippi’s Jackson and Gulfport both had 4.44 beds per 1,000 residents

What does this all mean for consumers and registered voters who are looking for healthcare reform?

Dr. David Goodman, a professor of pediatrics and community and family medicine at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in New Hampshire, which publishes the Atlas had these suggestions:

• Congress should require the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to use its payment policies to try to limit hospital growth in regions that have too many beds.
• National healthcare reform, should it be implemented, should set up a national commission to direct training dollars to high-need specialties such as primary care physicians

And what is the recommendation for communities that need to attract high quality physicians for staff openings? First, they start by attracting locum tenens in hopes that these physicians may choose to settle in their areas permanently. Once a physician has had a chance to live in a new place, and experienced the alternative to the fast-paced, busy metropolitan lifestyle, they may be more inclined to make the move a permanent one.

What else does it take? Great pay and benefits, less stressful work environments, and a desire to try something new are the top motivators to change for medical doctor jobs in specialties like OB/GYN and Orthopedic Surgery.

Interested in a Physician Job in a Community Hospital that is Ranked Among the Best in the U.S.?

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 06.04.2009 | Category CRNA, Education, Healthcare Career Blog, Hospitals, Locum Tenens, Medical doctor jobs, Physicians, Pschyriatry Jobs, Travel Nurses, jobs

The Candidate Direct Healthcare Career Blog brings you this breaking news for professionals seeking opportunities in hospitals nationwide.

Given the severe shortage of physicians jobs and CRNAs, many current position postings for permanent and locum tenens are in often in urban and rural communities in a multitude of healthcare settings.

If you like the idea of working in a community hospital, this article is for you! It’s no coincidence that many of these places are also in choice locations for locum tenens who wish to combine work and leisure and visit places like Fort Lauderdale Florida, Colorado Springs, or Atlanta Georgia.

65 of the Best of the Good Community Hospitals

They have no medical school or residents, but they know what they’re doing, some are even ranked!

The following 10 hospitals are not academic medical centers, nor do they have physicians in training. But they are ranked—some of them in multiple specialties—in the latest edition of U.S. News & World Reports, America’s Best Hospitals.

Top 10 Community Hospitals

The 55 non-teaching hospitals below scored nearly high enough in America’s Best Hospitals to be ranked.

For additional insight on the shortage of CRNA’s see this blog posting, Nurse Anesthetist

Physician jobs that are also in great demand are:

• Emergency Medicine
• Family Medicine
• Internal Medicine
• Hospitalist

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.