Getting Paid: Curing Part-Time Headaches[CME Article]
More physicians want the flexibility of a part-time schedule. But how do you work that into your full-time practice?
By Shelly K. Schwartz
EARN CME CREDITS!
Reading this and the three other CME-accredited articles in the May 2008 issue of Physicians Practice can earn you valuable CME credits — free! Look at our Table of Contents to locate this month’s four CME-accredited stories. After reading them, please go to CME LLC no later than May 31, 2009 to complete a quiz on the content matter of the four articles. Click on Log In (or, for first-time visitors, Register), and then click on Physicians Practice - May 2008. (Note: This link will take you out of PhysiciansPractice.com to a non-commercial Web site.)
Learning Objectives
After completing this article, readers will be able to:
Evaluate whether taking on part-time physician employees is economically feasible for their practices.
Determine how part-time physicians will affect patient care and satisfaction in their practices.
Measure the pros and cons of employing part-time physicians.
It wasn’t lack of professional commitment that prompted Jennifer Shu to request part-time status at the Atlanta-based Children’s Medical Group at which she works. To the contrary, the pediatrician, who spends eight hours a week seeing patients, uses her extra hours pursuing her additional time-consuming interests.
Shu writes award-winning parenting books, reviews products for a juvenile equipment manufacturer, provides consulting services, and, of course, spends time with her son. “I’m part of a generational push for a better quality of life,” she says. “We’ve watched our parents and mentors work so hard, and now we want to go in the other direction — spend more time with family, do things we find personally rewarding.”
She’s not alone. The demand for flexible hours among physicians, both male and female, is well-documented and on the rise. Why? Part of the reason, says Maria Hayduk, senior manager for ECG Management Consultants in St. Louis, is that a growing number of baby boomers are looking to scale back as their retirement approaches.
“We’re seeing it at both ends of the spectrum, with baby boomers looking to retire and wanting part-time hours toward the end of their career and the X and Y millennial generations wanting more flexible schedules too,” says Hayduk. “There’s definitely pressure on physician organizations to accommodate part-time providers.”
In some cases, opening your practice up to physicians working less than full-time offers distinct advantages. Offering flexible hours can be a powerful recruitment tool for specialty practices struggling to find qualified doctors, particularly those that attract more women physicians, such as pediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology, psychiatry, and family practice. Working women still tend to remain the primary caregivers in their families. And according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, nearly 49 percent of medical degrees were awarded to women in 2005-2006, up from 27 percent in 1982-1983. Continued...
