Staff Bonuses or Christmas Gifts?

[cbrsmurf]

Do you give your medical staff bonuses or gifts where you work?  

I'm sure depending on the place, size, and role of your practice it can vary a lot.  Interested to hear about it.

I work at a large specialty clinic in a big health group (10 MD's, 3 PA's) and the physicians give the staff, including PA's gifts/money.  The organization gives annual bonuses around this time as well (about $2k).  PA's, RN's and MA's are on a wage.  I believe the physicians are on a salary with RVU bonuses.  I have been thinking about getting the MA's gifts, but there's a lot of them (about 15) and some of them are part time, so getting gifts for each individual MA would be kind of a headache and would also probably cost a decent amount.

[GetMeOuttaThisMess]

I used to treat the clinic staff to pizza/drinks before breaking for the holidays.

[Cideous]

if working private clinic...yes.  If working for corporate overlords....no.

[entpac]

I am salaried.  Our physicians get RVU bonuses every year.  PA's do not.  I give a small gift to our MA's and nurses because they are hard workers and work on "overload" almost every day.  We couldn't do what we do, as well as we do it, without them!  Although it is costly, giving a small token of appreciation to the MA's and RN's is another way of acknowledging them.  Giving gifts is a personal choice and some of the other PA's do not give gifts.  If giving from the heart, give, but it is not an obligation.  

[SedRate]

I've only worked in small clinics, so I give the MAs and front desk staff Xmas and birthday gifts. I also try to buy lunches throughout the year, which also goes a long way. 

[AbeTheBabe]

I work closely with a surgery scheduler and medical assistant so I take them out to lunch and buy them a gift (generally a bottle of alcohol they like). I also buy my SP a nice bottle of alcohol too. He gives us cash gifts. This is a physician owned practice.

[mgriffiths]

When I worked private practice FM, I gave my MA a nice Christmas gift/bonus...plus I also bonused her throughout the year.  I received a monthly RVU bonus, and I gave my MA 10% of any bonus I received.  This was for 2 reasons.

1. Because she was so good made it possible for me to make a bonus without working extra hours or days
2. Because when I made a bonus it meant she worked harder

To me that means she deserves a piece of that bonus.  Plus, it made her the highest paid MA within the practice, and kept her from hopping to the next open MA position if it paid $0.01 more per hour.

As for Christmas, we were good friends (changed jobs about 1 year ago), and I would give her a smallish cash bonus - in the $100-$200 range and a small gift.  The owner docs would take care of a decent lunch and then we also had a Christmas party each year.