Choosing Your Practice

1 Dilemmas of the Job Search.- State of medicine today.- Neophyte physicians and their mistakes.- “Case” studies.- Defining the problem.- Bad news/good news.- 2 The Costs of Career Mistakes.- Hard costs.- Opportunity costs.- Emotional costs.- Final statement.- 3 Know Yourself.- Level I: Personality type.- Level II: External factors.- Rules of the road.- Finding out more about what you want.- 4 Know the Job Market.- Geographic imbalance.- Specialty imbalance.- Too many physicians?.- Market area profile.- Other assessment maneuvers.- Diversification of practices.- Trend toward group practice.- Practices from which to choose.- 5 Matching What You Want With What Is Available.- Fact versus opinion.- Long-term versus short-term perspective.- Trade-offs and compromises.- Summary.- 6 Where to Look for a Job.- Developing your options.- Classified advertising.- Society and residency program placement services.- Private placement services.- Targeting and networking.- Locum tenens.- 7 How to Evaluate Specific Opportunities.- Practice size (number of physicians).- Specialty m.- Legal structure.- Method of payment.- Shared expenses and compensation of members.- Other variables, issues, and considerations.- 8 Understanding and Negotiating an Agreement.- Principled negotiating.- Employment agreement.- Timing the negotiations.- 9 Conclusion.