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First medical directors (VPMA) were retirees –the evolving physician job marketRobert F. Priddy Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:47:00 GMT California location, CNO, 106 bed hospital with ADC of 68. The nurses are union, but the union is non-intrusive. BSN, MSN preferred. To expedite your request, send resume in Word format as an attachment to...
I remember my first medical director, vice president medical affairs – chief medical officer, a 60-ish year old pipe-smoking family practitioner with a sense of logic and fairness that would have challenged Aristotle. He got the job because he’d been fairly active in medical staff affairs, served as president of the medical staff, and was available. Being in his 60’s with a rural practice, he was interested in cutting back and the administrative role fit him to a “T.” He wasn’t uncommon then, in the early 1980’s. I attended some system-wide medical affairs meetings and it truly was a good old boys club, with an emphasis first on old and second on boys. Certainly there were exceptions, but they were few. That was the state of non-clinical careers for physicians then. Hospitals were feeling the first tugs of the Medicare prospective pricing system resulting in massive corporate reorganizations and the perceived need for a chief medical officer. With about 5,500 hospitals in the United States and a corresponding 400,000 to 500,000 physicians, the opportunities were obviously slim. But for a fortunate and chosen few, the emergence of the physician executive had begun. Certainly, physician administrators and executives were already present in pharma and insurance as well as in academia, but these physicians were seen as a separate group by practicing physicians – not really “one of them.” However, these new chief medical officers were most definitely one of them, and others began asking how they too could earn an equivalent to their practice income without the rigors and risks of practice. At this same time about 2 million nurses (RN) were working in the U.S. and proportionately more of them were seeking to leave the bedside than were physicians. This was a time of considerable and developing frustration among the nursing community resulting in a constant and increasing exodus throughout the 1980s and ‘90s. I was working in Maryland at the time, and I recall the onslaught by the Maryland Nurses Association to unionize our hospital. They were heady time, indeed. However, why is this nursing dynamic significant? It’s significant because nearly 30 years ago nurses began setting the stage (in business parlance, establishing the value proposition) for the benefit of using clinically trained staff in non-clinical roles. They often spoke of the nursing process in business meetings, and how following the same process they’d been trained to use in patient care would serve an equally positive and beneficial role in analyzing and managing business issues. And you know what… they were right. They were right because the nursing process is simply a logical set of steps focused on a defined or definable outcome. Regardless of why, what they said made sense, and in business meetings, the idea of having a defined process focused on a defined outcome was refreshing . Since then, nurses have permeated the ranks of healthcare executives, pharma, insurance, healthcare consulting, other types of provider organizations and any and every field that touches healthcare. And, they’re seen in leadership roles entirely separate from healthcare as well. Like it or not, what nurses have done for the past 30 years is lay the foundation for you, doctor, to leave clinical practice and find a well-paying non-clinical job. Which brings me to the ad, yes that’s an actually ad that popped up from an internet search for “nurse executive jobs,” at the beginning of this article. Now, if you’re a primary care physician today, would you mind earning a $160K-$175K annual salary with a 30 percent bonus potential for an administrative healthcare job? That translates into cash income of up to $227,500, plus benefits. You probably don’t want to be called the CNO, Chief Nursing Officer, but I’m sure they would change that to Chief Patient Care Officer, and do you think they might pay a physician at least at the high end of the scale if not a bit more? My clients always tell me they’ve looked for months for non-clinical jobs with no success. “Where can I find a list,” I’m asked. And I tell them no list exists. You’ll find little or nothing posted with the major job boards and if you conduct an internet search for non-clinical jobs, you’ll find me. So if you want to get a broader idea of careers where a clinical background is considered appropriate or desirable, search for nursing jobs. But what about those chief medical officer opportunities? You’re right, my old friend has long since retired. As a matter of fact, we spoke only a few weeks ago to wish one another a happy new year. But as a professional recruiter of medical directors told me recently, “I’m not interested in newbie’s. The organizations that I work with expect a medical director (VP Medical Affairs, Chief Medical Officer) with at least three to five years experience, and preferably more.” So what are your prospects for a non-clinical job or career? Really, they’re quite good, but you just need to know how to look, where to look and most of all you need to focus on what you want to be doing for the rest of your life, not merely on what you could do based on a limited perspective of your skills and abilities – and certainly not based on published job openings. |
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