Finding your first attending medical job is an important milestone that may be both thrilling and a little terrifying. The number of individuals who want to hire you and the amount they want to pay you will pleasantly surprise you. In your job hunt, you will have a lot to think about, including academic or private practice, employment or partnering track, and region. Additionally, you’ll need to select the proper culture. The majority of the components of a medical contract are simple. You likely feel well-equipped to assess career opportunities based on compensation and perks. However, there are additional contract provisions that you might not have thought about or even heard of but which might be equally significant. The four typical contract clauses listed below might significantly impact your satisfaction and financial performance as a doctor. You might be able to negotiate some of them or perhaps all of them, but you should, at the very least, be informed of what you are agreeing to. Obviously, nothing in this article can take the place of legal counsel from an experienced contract expert who is knowledgeable about physician employment contracts.

Non-compete agreements

These restrict your right to practice medicine for a specific amount of time and within a specified radius of where you now work. The bottom line is that while you might be able to avoid your NCA, you shouldn’t bank on it. Consider requesting a shorter non-compete agreement from your new employment for doctor contract negotiations. This is crucial if your family or other connections keep you in your local region.

Obstacles to other work

Freelancing could be expressly forbidden or might be covered by your non-compete agreement. Request the removal of this condition if you value your capacity to work dual jobs. Your contract can also provide that your employer is the rightful owner of any work you produce while working, even if you did it on your own time. You need a language specifically declaring that whatever intellectual property you develop is yours alone and that any money you make from it goes to you, not the clinic if you want to write the book on the side.

Call-in commitment

Certainly, you are aware of how calls operate: everyone makes them, and no one loves them, but at least the results are equal. No, it’s not. Within the same group of doctors, call policies and weekend and holiday schedules might vary in the less egalitarian world of medical clinics. Your call load will rise if someone quits the practice or unexpectedly becomes unable to handle calls. Additionally, companies are free to define “call” however they see appropriate. For example, at one position I had, call meant covering the NP practice if one of them phoned out and working weekend clinical hours.

Cessation

Nobody likes to consider how their current employment may end, but sooner or later, it will. Can you be fired without cause, for instance? If so, how much early notice must you give if you must depart? 4-6 months is usual; certainly, you should aim for shorter. Do you need to be given notice if the clinic fires you? When will you get severance pay, and how is severance determined? We all hope to land the ideal position as soon as possible. The majority of doctors leave their first attending position; therefore, most of us won’t. Although this isn’t always a terrible thing, you should at least increase your odds of success because switching professions may be unpleasant and expensive, particularly if it requires moving or losing partnership buy-in. You can concentrate on your real job-becoming the attending you’ve always wanted to be once you have the appropriate contract in your possession.