PA2020Candidate Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 Can a PA be employed as the primary healthcare provider in the occupational medicine department at a hospital? Can you make a career out of that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted February 5, 2018 Administrator Share Posted February 5, 2018 39 minutes ago, PA2020Candidate said: Can a PA be employed as the primary healthcare provider in the occupational medicine department at a hospital? Can you make a career out of that? It varies from state to state, but I could have 50+ hours of well-paying Occ med patients if I wanted to make that my sole focus, so yeah, I'd say you can make a career out of it. This is Washington state; I understand in Oregon a PA can only be the attending provider on a case for the first 120 days or something; no idea about other states. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joelseff Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 I see Occ Med job listing all the time... Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceBanner Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 I was for 2 years. Depending on the state, there are generally "levels" of Occ Med providers because worker's compensation is partly a state-funded thing. Basically the level dictates the medico-legal care you can provide for worker's compensation cases. I'm probably explaining it crudely but that's how it was in Colorado. I cant say Id recommend it as a specialty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAAdmission Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 3 hours ago, BruceBanner said: I cant say Id recommend it as a specialty. That was the question I was going to follow with: why would you want to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted February 5, 2018 Administrator Share Posted February 5, 2018 3 hours ago, CJAdmission said: That was the question I was going to follow with: why would you want to? Because people who don't get better right away are discarded by society: their employers, friends, spouses and families... They will typically lose everything. I didn't intend to get into occupational medicine. But, having stumbled into it and built rapport with my patients, and seeing how many other incompetent, dismissive providers they have been victimized by, I cannot bear to NOT take care of them. Grown men and women at the mercy of a system they do not understand and cannot control--they need an advocate. I just had an ortho MD IME examiner double down on his statement that he is at least 51% sure that a janitor's CMC arthritis has nothing to do with her working with her hands repetitively for the last 12 years. When evil men like that take a paycheck to turn a blind eye to the suffering of injured workers... how can I not stand up for them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAAdmission Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 I feel your pain, and appreciate the work you do. I just know that after a day of back pain fakers my little faith in humanity would be altogether eradicated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted February 5, 2018 Administrator Share Posted February 5, 2018 Oh, I completely agree--fakers suck. Since so many of my patients are the long-term ones, the ones whose cases have dragged on and on, I really don't have to deal with THAT aspect of the system: if you've been in the system for 2+ years, you're pretty much not faking, because there are waaay easier ways to get a meager income for free. Having worked through an initially ridiculous panel of old cases that I inherited, I mostly take old cases when someone else has ceased seeing the patient. I do do some straightforward new cases, but it's not the emphasis of my current clinic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cideous Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 Most occ med jobs have two camps. Either you work for a place that answers directly to the company/Insurance adjuster/case manager and treat the patient like they do...a criminal OR you work for a clinic that is co-owned by a defense/litigation worker's comp attorney and take the patient off work for 3 months. I have yet to find the happy middle ground that lets providers treat the injuries like any other non-workers comp injury. In Urgent Care we do a LOT of worker's comp, and I was told on day one...you are NEVER EVER under any circumstances to take a patient off work. Even for fractures. It's lovely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted February 13, 2018 Administrator Share Posted February 13, 2018 On 2/10/2018 at 7:29 AM, Cideous said: Most occ med jobs have two camps. Either you work for a place that answers directly to the company/Insurance adjuster/case manager and treat the patient like they do...a criminal OR you work for a clinic that is co-owned by a defense/litigation worker's comp attorney and take the patient off work for 3 months. I have yet to find the happy middle ground that lets providers treat the injuries like any other non-workers comp injury. In Urgent Care we do a LOT of worker's comp, and I was told on day one...you are NEVER EVER under any circumstances to take a patient off work. Even for fractures. It's lovely. That's sad. I guess I kind of stumbled into the middle ground, because I don't do either. My boss is a DO who's likely going to retire in a few years, has had plenty of opportunities to sell his private practice and hasn't. He's actually been my PCP for ~18 years and wrote an LOR for me for PA school, to boot. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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