Work Spa

A locums pulmonolgist at LHITBW and I were talking about our experiences at LH.  She works at a large hospital in Sacramento, and she loves coming up to LH because, "It's so peaceful.  I only have 8-10 patients.  It's like a vacation." 

My feelings exactly.  The last week was so completely relaxing.  I was able to easily get back into reading diagnostic studies, which is delightful.  As far as IR, well, I did several biopsies and a couple of drainages--"light IR".  I almost had a GI bleeder, but they were able to treat the patient in Endoscopy. 

This leads to my only true complaint/concern about this posting: IR, real IR is hard to practice in this tiny hospital.  I don't know how the prior group kept their IR skills sharp.  Maybe they rotate out to bigger hospitals.  There is no dedicated IR suite, it's a Cath Lab.  There's no IR call.  I was told about the GIB when I walked into the hospital at 7:45.  The Cath Lab tech didn't even come in until about 8:30.  I checked out the IR inventory, and there was the necessary equipment to perform the procedure, but it still was suboptimal. 

So generally, LHITBW is like a spa (maybe things will be more exciting as I am there for a month solid). 

Now I'm off to the ACR Education Center in Reston, VA, for Mammo Boot Camp!

Little Hospital in the Big Woods

The hospital I will be spending time in this month and next is in a teeny-tiny town at the foot of a mountain range.  It's set in a residential area that is tucked into the trees, and behind the hospital is a canyon.  In the canyon is a river, and I am told that you can hear the river rushing in the summer.

This very tiny hospital is so small that it smells sterile, like the OR.  And that is because the ORs take up most of the floor plan of the first level of the building.  The second (actually the lower) level has the medical unit, which currently is closed because there are not enough patients to fill it.

Benefits of a tiny hospital include ease in finding one's way around, learning most everyone's name pretty quickly, a general feeling of happiness and teamwork, having referring physicians drop by to discuss cases and (bonus!) free food for doctors in the teeny-tiny cafeteria.

I had such a great time today.  Finally, I'm back to being myself--really loving my job, feeling happy and comfortable.  And (bonus bonus!!) since it's RadTech week, one of the vendors brought in food for lunch--real Mexican food!  It was so good, like El Pollo Loco but better.  (Food means a lot to me!)

And Now For Something Completely Different

I quit my job at UAMS (way too much drama involved in that situation).  My last day was October 31.  My original plan was to take a job with a radiology practice here in Little Rock.  If they had offered me a job back in August when I interviewed, I'm sure I would have accepted it.  However, they were not in a particular hurry to make a decision, which gave me time to think about what I really wanted in my work life and in my work/life balance.

The thing is, I realized that I didn't want to take a job based on convenience--I need a job, they are offering me one, I'll take it.  That didn't work out well at all last go-round.  So to fill time while I find what I want (let's not say the "perfect" job--nothing is perfect, not even the very wonderful job I had at Kaiser), I'm going to do some locums.

Physician locum tenens jobs are plentiful.  I put a few feelers out there and was inundated with possibilities almost immediately.  Oftentimes, these are to fill a spot somewhere in a not-particularly-popular part of the nation, such as Anywhere, North Dakota or Bordertown, Texas.  Radiology is growing as a specialty while radiologists in mid- or late-career are becoming burned out with the case load, so there are openings as those physicians cut back, take early retirement or retire on schedule.  So there are lots of opportunities to temporarily fill those spots.  The groups are hoping that they will find a good locums person and get him or her to stay on permanently.  It also helps the locums figure out where they want to be and what kind of practice they want to be in.

I have worked with three recruiting companies that have really impressed me:

1,  Foster Crown (http://fostercrown.com/)--they advertise themselves as "The Boutique Recruitment Firm", working only with radiologists, vascular surgeons and hospitalists (internists).  Steve May is the CEO.  He is very approachable, knowledgeable and trustworthy.  His assistant, Saj Cherian, is prompt and professional (as is Steve).  They scheduled my first locums, which will be at Feather River Hospital in Paradise, California. 

2.  Medicus Healthcare (https://medicushcs.com/)--Medicus is a larger company, but I have been very happy with them.  Scott Dulac is my recruiter, and he's been totally on top of things for me.  He scheduled my second locums assignment.  I'll be in Nashua, New Hampshire, January through March, 2018. 

3.  Staff Care (https://www.staffcare.com/)--I haven't booked anything with Staff Care yet, but I have really liked my recruiter, Ashli Lakey.  She's really positive and pleasant, and she's keeping up with me.

So, here I go!  I'm leaving for California on Sunday.  I'll spend a week there, then come home for a couple of weeks, then go back until the end of December.  Rowdy will hold down the fort here.  I will update my blog as things go along.  Feel free to ask questions, make comments.