hospital vs. private practice (experienced medical practitioners only, please).?

Question

what advantages does each side have over the other when working in a hospital (career advancement, malpractice, patient load, teaching residents)?

to be more specific, how would the situation be different for an anesthesiologist?

Answer 1

Again, like the person's answer above, this is a very vague question.
Hospitals will sometimes have more options for you when it comes to diagnosing, special tests, surgeries, etc. and private practices are usually smaller. However, since hospitals usually have a greater patients to clinicians ratio the clinicians usually do not have enough time to concentrate on the needs and possible illnesses of the patient. Private practice usually have more time (not always though) to work more on each patient but usually they're bills are higher.
When teaching residents, private practices are better places for residents and other student clinicians to learn the tools of the trade because they have more time with each patient.
As for malpractice, its a mixed bag.
Career advancement, you usually get more money with private practice but it's usually harder to manage whereas the hospital would help take care crossing the T's and dotting the I's.

Answer 2

Starting a private practice is much more difficult than it was forty years ago when I opened an office. Credentialling by hospital medical staffs and by insurance companies, including Medicare and Medicaid takes forever. In the meantime, how are you to be paid. So if you do private practice, you are probably better off joining an established practice. Advantages include a somewhat greater degree of independence. You can make your own policies up to a degree. Our professional corporation paid our malpractice. We did resident teaching, but at a cost since it cuts down on time available to see patients.

Hospital based medicine offers more regular hours with shared call. Administration, staffing and billing headaches are professionally managed. Patient load is probably discussed by contractual agreement. Malpractice and resident teaching is readily available, and the costs to you are still present, just more indirect. But, you have to agree to hospital practice policies.

It's a different environment now. I think if I were just starting out, I'd choose a hospital based practice. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my three plus decades in private practice. And I did chafe at the regimentation when I spent a mandatory two years in the military, even though I was fortunate to be stationed at a large base with a fine hospital.

Answer 3

this is a very vague question. many fields in medicine have both clinic and hospital duties. for example, if you are a pediatrician, obstetrician, internal medicine, surgery... you will have your clinic practice as well as take care of patients who are hospitalized. If you mean managed care vs private practice, that is an entirely different question.

Answer 4

I don't know :( but I wan't to be a nurse or a layer or a chief