The transition to practice—or simply changing jobs—can be fraught with challenging questions. For example, what type of practice should you choose? How does an employer’s vision factor into things? And how do you begin the process of scrutinizing job offers?
A guide (login required) published by AMN Healthcare Physician Solutions, formerly known as Merritt Hawkins, explores how to assess a medical practice opportunity through eight essential steps.
Step three in the process is determining whether there is a defined need for physician medical specialty in the area served by the physician practice, hospital or health system.
You can learn more with a separate AMA STEPS Forward® toolkit, “What to Look for in Your First or Next Practice: Evaluate the Practice Environment to Match Your Priorities.” It is enduring material and designated by the AMA for a maximum of 0.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.
The toolkit is part of the AMA Ed Hub™, an online learning platform that brings together high-quality CME, maintenance of certification, and educational content from trusted sources, all in one place—with activities relevant to you, automated credit tracking, and reporting for some states and specialty boards.
Learn more about AMA CME accreditation.
Assume nothing
“You want to make sure you're walking into a stable environment, so understanding the defined need is critical,” said Leah Grant, president of the AMN Healthcare Physician Solutions division. “You need to know what your catchment population is, as well as how many competitors you have for that population. This gives you a better understanding of patient volumes not only now, but also in the future.”
The guide advises taking these following actions to determine if your expertise is needed in a given service area.
Find out whether the job is in a designated Medically Underserved Area (MUA) or Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA).
If it is, “there is probably a need for primary care and there is likely a need for certain specialists as well,” the guide says. The recruiting medical group or hospital should know if it is in a designated MUA or HPSA.
Determine the physician-to-population ratio for your specialty in that area.
Then compare this ratio with data showing the required number of physicians by specialty per 100,000 population. The guide notes that the recruiting medical group or hospital should have that information, but you can also look to published studies on the topic.
The AMA Health Workforce Mapper is a free, customizable, interactive tool that illustrates the geographic distribution of the health care workforce. Whether looking at state, county or metropolitan area data, users can filter physicians and non-physician health care professionals by specialty and employment setting.
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Look into local patient outmigration patterns.
“Some groups have compensation tied to production, where your incentive bonus says that you need to see a minimum number of patients,” Grant said, noting that outmigration can undermine your ability to meet those targets.
Ask whether current physicians have full practices, and press the employer on whether those doctors support your recruitment.
“The critical piece you want to know is how many patients are you walking into? Are you walking into a full patient load or are you going to have to ramp that up?” Grant said. “If the patient load is already there, that would indicate that someone is retiring and the employer is doing succession planning. On the other hand, if you’re responsible for building the patient load, a good question to ask is how you will be marketed.”
If you are looking at an employer in a competitive market, find out if there will be patient overflow from colleagues with long patient wait times.
If there won’t be, the employer likely will be looking to you to build the practice and capture market share.
Ask about the employer’s medical staff plan.
“Many hospitals today, and some large medical groups, prepare staffing plans that analyze patient demographic trends, acuity levels and other data required to determine community need for physicians,” the guide says.
The AMA has assembled a variety of resources to help physicians flourish in the employment setting. They include the AMA Physicians’ Guide to Hospital Employment Contracts (PDF), free for AMA members, the Annotated Model Physician-Group Practice Employment Agreement (PDF).
Learn more with the AMA about understanding physician employment contracts.
