Any surgeons who work for Riverside Medical Clinic (Riverside, CA)?

[California Steamin']

I am searching for information on what it is like to be a surgeon for Riverside Medical Clinic. I can't seem to find any information either on studentdoctor or the Internet in general.

What is their reputation? Will I be stigmatized if I take the job, it doesn't work out, and then I seek employment elsewhere?

From what I can gather, they are a multi-specialty medical group similar to Beaver Medical Group (in Redlands), based loosely on the Mayo model. For better or worse, they are much smaller than The Permanente Group, and they don't have an affiliation with a group that owns hospitals (like Kaiser). Beyond that, I know only the PR boilerplate I can glean from their website (their mission, their history, how seriously they take their role in the community, blah blah blah). They own their own surgical centers, and are building another.

Thanks!!

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[vhawk]

I dont mean to be rude, but i looked this clinic up on their website and they have 5 general surgeons. Im sure if you added up all the surgical specialties there are 20ish people or whatever, but your chances of ANY of those 20 posting on this forum, combined with the chances that even if they did they would want to publically give you a bunch of useful insider information on an internet forum, has gotta be extremely close to zero.

Your post sort of implies you have an offer from them; if this is true, surely you met some of the surgeons and could ask them personally? Especially someone not in your specialty, may be more likely to give you unbiased information. If you are in more preliminary stages, then it probably doesnt hurt to apply/interview to try and get a better feel for the place, or even just to find out if they are interested and its even worth your time to investigate.

As for stigma about taking a job and leaving after a year, i am somewhat of an expert on that topic currently ha. I would say that about 70% of people will assume that the reason for your leaving has to do with the job (partners, environment, location etc) another 20% will think it was something to do with you (competence, personality, misconduct) and the rest won't care or have enough experience to realize sometimes people just change jobs after a year.

If you change again in another year or two though, those percentages will shift dramatically.

 

[California Steamin']

Fair enough. It didn't cost me much to ask, however.

I'm a California transplant, so I don't yet have a great understanding for the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various players.

I know that Kaiser used to be close to to the bottom of the barrel, and but is now considered a good job. But I know nothing--absolutely nothing--about the reputation of Riverside Medical Clinic. Yes, I'd like to hear from a physician who works for them, but I'd also welcome input from somebody who decided against an offer, or knows enough about them never to have bothered applying in the first place.

 

[doc05]

Looks like a typical multispecialty practice. There's good and bad with that model.

Do you have a job offer? If so, they should be willing to give you all the information you want.

 

[C4C]

From my contacts in the Inland Empire (who have been looking to escape the mess that Envision made of Temecula/Murrieta), I hear that the folks at Riverside are spinning it that they fended off a buyout from United Healthcare, who instead opted to buy Beaver Multispecialty (in Redlands). I don't know if that's a point in Riverside's favor, or against them.

I don't know where you go for the straight dope. I wouldn't necessarily trust the people who interview you to give you the unvarnished truth.

I don't know whether you take the job and hope for a buyout, or take the job and hope that the group stays independent. If you do take the job, come back here and tell us how it is.

From where I stand, a local multi-specialty group should stand as a bulwark against national management companies, who are among the worst in a long line of doctors' enemies. Private practice is dying if not dead. It's all ball bearings and corporate medicine these days. Being smaller than Kaiser might offer more autonomy; or it might mean that with the next economic downturn or stroke of a politician's pen you are out of a job. Who on earth knows? Nobody.

 

[Comfortably_Dumb]

I was with them for about six months right after I graduated from my residency. It was no better than okay.

The Good:

Collegial, supportive peers.
Well-run clinic.
Appreciative patients.
Benefits.


The Bad:

Low pay.
Trouble recruiting. (Your surgical colleagues might still be from Loma Linda or other mid-tier programs, but the group's internists/pediatricians are mostly going to be from the Caribbean, lower-tier DO programs, or Guatemala.)
Epic EHR.
Inefficient, old, and poorly-staffed surgical center. (You will probably end up doing most of your cases at Riverside Community Hospital. It's sad, but the community hospital runs smoother and has better equipment than the clinic's own ambulatory center.)
Old-fashioned...but not in a good way. (Old equipment in a state of disrepair. Cases continually cancelled over equipment/facility issues. Old staff that won't learn new techniques. Marginal anesthesiologists who should have retired ten years ago. Circulating nurses who would have felt overworked at the VA.)


As far as "their reputation" goes, I would say that the citizens of Riverside seem okay with them. They aren't Kaiser, of course. But they are a tiny step above IEHP. (Interestingly, as Riverside Clinic continues to struggle, it recently launched a IEHP-RMC plan. Private clinics who are seeking out Medicaid patients and reimbursements are very, very clearly circling the drain.) Outside of Riverside, nobody knows who they are. And, of course, outside of the Inland Empire, nobody knows (or cares) the first thing about Riverside itself.

Regarding your impressions of Kaiser's reputation: It seems that Kaiser and Riverside have kind of switched places in terms of their ability to recruit over the last 20 or so years. Kaiser used to take anybody who would agree to work for them. Now, they have become selective. The opposite seems to have happened to Riverside.


TL/DR: If you have any other option, that other option is certainly better than Riverside. If you have no other option, you can probably resign yourself to being happy at Riverside.

 

[California Steamin']

Thanks for the input.

After scratching the surface and making some phone calls, it sounds like a hard pass. Too much difficulty getting direct questions to simple questions. Too many red flags. Too much uncertainty regarding their financial solvency.

Best of luck to anyone who takes the risk. Feel free to come back and tell me where I was wrong.

I guess I have to find a way to worm my way into the Kaiser system. Sigh.