If your supervising physician dies, quits, leaves practice question

[Westz33]

I have a question , more towards working in a large medical group or hospital system (i.e. Kaiser, County hospital etc.) ... what happens if your working in a hospital as a PA and your supervising physician dies accidentally, quits abruptly or is fired for some reason? .. do you automatically lose your job or does the hospital simply place you under another practicing physician? ... some PA in ortho that I shadowed have worked for county hospital for decades.. so it seems pretty stable.. anywho.. so what happens? does the administrators at the hospital just place you under any physician willing to supervise? or are you SOL

 

its pretty clear cut if you work for a 1 physician private practice what happens to your job, but I heard there is an insurance that a PA can purchase that just in case your supervising physician quits and your out of the job, the policy will pay out your previous salary for X amount of time until you find a new job is this true?

 

thanks!

[KCMA79]

I worked for a large county health services agency in SoCal for many yrs. If a doc left you were just assigned another SP and life went on.

[EMEDPA]

in large group practices usually every doc is listed as an alternate supervisor so if one leaves/dies it isn't a problem.

in a solo practice, especially rural, you are hosed.

[rcdavis]

Depends on you state and legislation.

In NC, you can continue to work temporarily with an alternate supervisory physician... But you will heed to submit paperwork ASAP requesting approval of a new SP. and all of the supervisory agreements will need to be redone.

 

The hospitals, however, may have a different "take"., as your credentials are listed as attached to TGE SP, and not to the alternate SP. They may place you in a temporary non-credentialled status until they get written communication from the state board of medical examiners authorizing a new SP.

 

In SC, you will immediately lose authority to practice at all, until you have refilled the paperwork to the state,and both you and the proposed new SP have had the mandatory meeting with the state board representative ( unless the new SP has previously been a PA supervisor. You cannot work for an alternate SP. in the absence of a designated SP still practicing and fulfilling the SP duties.

 

And your hospital credentials will be immediately administratively, non-punitively suspended.

 

It's a *****, but the price we are paying for being a "dependent practitioner"

[ventana]

in my state I would not be able to go to work the next day

as I own my own practice and have only one SP I am in a rock and a hard place

 

that is next years issue - getting a back up SP in line - formal agreement that he will step in if needed and I pay him a a small amount a year for this..... money well spent

 

Also, prevents my current doc from holding the practice hostage for more money by threatening to leave.....

[EMEDPA]

in WA as long as you have alternate supervisors of record it isn't a problem.

[primadonna22274]

Depends on you state and legislation.

In NC, you can continue to work temporarily with an alternate supervisory physician... But you will heed to submit paperwork ASAP requesting approval of a new SP. and all of the supervisory agreements will need to be redone.

 

The hospitals, however, may have a different "take"., as your credentials are listed as attached to TGE SP, and not to the alternate SP. They may place you in a temporary non-credentialled status until they get written communication from the state board of medical examiners authorizing a new SP.

 

In SC, you will immediately lose authority to practice at all, until you have refilled the paperwork to the state,and both you and the proposed new SP have had the mandatory meeting with the state board representative ( unless the new SP has previously been a PA supervisor. You cannot work for an alternate SP. in the absence of a designated SP still practicing and fulfilling the SP duties.

 

And your hospital credentials will be immediately administratively, non-punitively suspended.

 

It's a *****, but the price we are paying for being a "dependent practitioner"

 

Yup...recently fell victim to this myself in SC. Took 5 mos and repeated phone calls/emails with a new SP to reactivate my license when my former SP curtly sent a letter to the board withdrawing his supervision for me and another PA (unbeknownst to me). Left a VERY bad taste in my mouth and frankly, if I had relied on that job as my only source of income would have been financially devastating. We have GOT to fix this ridiculous rule.

[Guest Paula]

I'm another PA who would not be able to go to work the next day if my SP suddenly left. I have been meaning to ask him to find a back up. I don't have much faith that he will see my point of view, and will feel threatened if we retain a back up physician. It would topple the kingdom of the klinic.

[Westz33]

I'm another PA who would not be able to go to work the next day if my SP suddenly left. I have been meaning to ask him to find a back up. I don't have much faith that he will see my point of view, and will feel threatened if we retain a back up physician. It would topple the kingdom of the klinic.

 

what type of practice do you work in? private single doc office? or hospital setting? large med group?