Interview the Job at Your Interview

What should you ask about when interviewing at a potential new job? You may only be spending a half day at a practice before deciding whether or not it is right for you so you want to make sure to find out everything you need to know.

1. How does the practice get new patients? This should give you an insight on how busy the practice is and how good they are at marketing. A full marketing portfolio should include multiple forms of digital marketing, communicating and meeting with medical professionals, and other community involvement.

Alternatively if the practice has been in existence for 30 years they might just have such a strong word of mouth following that they don't need to pay for any marketing at this point. So if that seems to be the case a good follow up question would be: How many new patients does the practice see a week ? How many new patients does each doctor see a week ? These are good stats to start collecting from potential job opportunities for comparison.

2. How will you get new patients ? Some practices are set up so the senior doctors get the new patients and the junior doctors are expected to bring in their own. A practice that will set you up for success will funnel patients to you (new and old). Ideally, the practice has more patients they can handle and need you to come in and take the load off of them. Which is ideal because the more patients you see in the office, the more surgeries you will perform etc.

3. What is a typical patient like for this practice? You want to know what kind of patients you are going to be seeing, what kind of pathology and in turn what kind of surgeries you're going to be doing etc. Some different types of patients to inquire about include Medicare patients, wound care, routine care, sports medicine, pediatrics and second opinions.

4. What are the administrative expectations of you? For example, do they expect you to do any marketing or social media posting ? When are your notes expected to be done? Some practices have a penalty if your notes aren't done within 24 hours. Do they expect you to manage the staff at the office while you are there ?

5. How will your interests/specialty fit in with their practice? For instance, if you are fellowship training in nerve surgery will the local hospitals allow you to have privileges to do these procedures? If you want to see primarily sports medicine, will the practice gear their marketing towards your interests? One of the best parts of foot and ankle surgery is the ability to practice what you are passionate about so make sure you will be able to !

6. How much call is required? There are two types of call: practice call and hospital call. Practice call is usually minor because barely anyone calls the office with podiatric emergencies in the middle of the night. Practice call can also include if anyone from the practice sends a patient to the hospital for admission the person on call has to go round on them, perform in patient surgery etc. Hospital call is when the physician is on call for the hospital and depending on where you practice, this can be quite demanding. Are you expected to take hospital call alone? Or does the group share it? And most importantly, how often? In my opinion, being on call is an excellent way to build up your practice, get new patients, and get surgical numbers for boards. So if you want to be successful don't shy away from call in your early years. I might even say be EAGER to take call. I would hire you!

7. Finally, compensation and benefits. This should always be last on your mind. I recommend waiting to get a contract in your hands as this will have it all spelled out in it anyway. Benefits to check for include:

Salary
Bonus structure (is there a complicated calculation of it?)
If the bonus structure is based on your collections when is the cut off ? (remember it can take 6 months to get some claims paid)
Medical insurance (what percentage do you pay/what percentage does the employer pay)
Medical license/DEA fees, ACFAS membership fees
Medical malpractice insurance (should always be paid for by employer)
401k options (does the employer provider a match benefit? If so what is the percentage?)

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