The Job Hunt III

For me, the process was strangely straightforward. Because of my wife's job and our preferences, we only looked in the Bay Area. The job market here involves a lot of inquiries and networking. I basically went through all the groups I had heard about and all the hospitals that existed in the Bay Area. I asked around for insights and opinions about the groups. I did some researching to get a sense of how big they were, the hospitals and surgical centers they served, and the demographic of the group. Then I sent a quick email to the leadership of the group. During the process, everyone was cordial, but most groups were not looking to hire.

In anesthesiology, at least, the market goes through ebbs and flows. When there is a lot of uncertainty in health care, as with the Affordable Care Act, changing reimbursements, and shifting supply-demand structures, physician groups tend to batten down the hatches, ready for a lean season. There is uncertainty at every level; hospitals have to stay out of the red, groups have to renegotiate contracts, even large health care systems like Kaiser try to move to predict the future. Thus, when I started looking, jobs were scarce, but over the year, I realized most of the scarcity was a result of doctors being conservative. Once they realized the Affordable Care Act didn't ruin everything and other policy changes transitioned smoothly, they became more willing to expand their group.