Solo Rural ED coverage pay

[rrlpa]

I have a question about my current gig. I'm so dissatisfied with the degree of my responsibility and my compensation. I work for a large Hospital system in the west providing solo coverage to a low volume, high acuity rural ED. We are at the convergence of 2 major interstates and are a farming community.  A recipes for badness in the ED. I completed a post-grad program in EM and am fine covering the ED here. I have 8 years experience and my skills with medical and trauma patients are up to snuff. My medical director who is boarded in EM says that I do a much better job with sick patients than the FP guys/residents who cover shifts here.

 

The catch is that by working for this health system, my pay is per years of experience (8 years). I get paid what the other PAs with same experience get paid even though at the urban or suburban facilities, they have a physician on site continuously for consults or when the (*&^% hits the fan. This is not the case with me. I'm all alone all the time. Have a general surgeon who is around occasionally and that's it.

 

I make high 50's/hr, plus benefits, cme, 401k match, pension after 25 years and licensing. I love my job, but its setting me up to either demand more pay/hr or move to a less stressful setting. How would y'all approach this with administration?

[ventana]

WAY underpaid

 

A Doc would cost them 250-300k per year

 

You are doing the same thing for 100k

 

I think this is an area where PAs need to grow as a profession - when we are experienced and up and running at the same level as a doc we should be close to the same income. Granted we will never will be the same as we just will not - but if you are covering solo, and doing it all - I would say you should be closer to $100/hour - or in the high 100-low 200's range

 

Good luck getting HR to see this - mine sees the value of PAs but caps it at about 140k - which is pretty darn good, but for those that are truly great it is still a bit insulting......

 

I think the angle you need to take is stop comparing to PA - instead compare to MD/DO and even better the rate for the FP doc's that are covering....

[PAMTB]

You are way under paid! When I was working solo in a critical access hospital I was making 65/hr. I know PAs who work solo in rural EDs who make 100-110/hr. I don't know if the AAPA salary report has enough data to support this, but it is worth a look. 

[EMEDPA]

way underpaid. anyone who has done an em residency should make $60/hr plus to start. solo/rural coverage $65-80/hr +