2. Changes in Compensation
Employers may unexpectedly change the requirements for earning payment. Additionally, some physicians who are thinking about leaving a hospital's employment don't believe they get paid enough, notes Jim Fuller, Vice President of Delta Physician Placement.
"There's a perception that income opportunities are lower than in private practice," says Fuller. "That's not necessarily true, but some organizations will be much more conservative on the income guarantee, and compensation will be more skewed to the production end."
Robbins has seen situations in which the hospital bumps up production goals without paying doctors more. "If family physicians have an employment agreement without any kind of production bonus, they're going to increase their patient load by 10 or 15 people a day, and they're still going to be paid the same."
Because of physician shortages and hospitals' eagerness to employ doctors, newly hired doctors may receive higher salaries than those who have been in a hospital group for a while, Robbins adds. That will irritate the doctors who have been there longer and get paid less.
Frequent changes in compensation methods may also anger some employed doctors, notes Tommy Bohannon, Senior Director of Recruiting and Development Training for Merritt Hawkins & Associates. "They may change the basis of payment to RVUs [relative-value units], quality scores, or something else. That wears on people after a while."
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Cite this: Six Biggest Gripes of Employed Doctors - Medscape - Mar 02, 2011.
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