Peds/Locum threads

[JumpingLumberjacksofMaine]

Hi, apologies (I did search a bit--but haven't figured out how to restrict searches to the peds forums).

My mother--a pediatrician--is partially retired and thinking of doing locums at a nearby hospital. I do mainly locums but in neurology, so while I'm very concerned to protect my mother from the scummy stuff I see (it takes awhile to get educated on rates, how to negotiate with locums) I have no idea of pediatric locums rates/salaries, what to look into etc.

Anyone have any insight on this? THaks very much in advance.

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[SurfingDoctor]

Why would someone who is semi-retired be concerned about salary? Divorce I suppose as that’s always expensive at any age.

Most of the locums I see pay way higher than I make and also sound terrible. I mean, it’s generally no mystery why any system is willing to pay at stupidly high rates for something a monkey could do. It’s cause that system sucks.

So again, that seems like a strange job for someone who is approaching retirement. Unless there is major financial duress.

In any case, I’ve never really been that interested, but those positions seem to pay around an annual salary of 350 to 500K on cursory glance. Again, I almost always delete the email or hang up the phone, so I have no idea how malpractice insurance and RVU generation are added to that equation.

On a completely separate note, to search the Pediatrics forum only, in the search function at the top right, click “Search… this forum” and there you are.

 

[JumpingLumberjacksofMaine]

#1) Thanks--I feel like a ***** for not noticing that you could change to just search this forum--I knew it could be done but just missed that button when I was looking.
#2) To answer your other question--I don't know if it's need vs paranoia--I'm there to help my mother, but I also don't pry into finances. She's partially retired due to age; there are some major legal bills but it's due to a family squabble; I'm not huge on airing personal info even in anonymous forums so I'll leave it at that.

I will say that she generally underestimates herself and her leverage with her employer who seems to have really taken advantage of her in the past (to the extent that--odd as it was--I jumped on the call and helped negotiate with her most recent contract).

I can speak only from experience in my own field, but I've spent a lot of time educating myself on locums, how to negotiate with them etc--there is a fairly common playbook they use. This has been time well spent. I've tried to personally pass along and help colleagues in my own specialty doing locums as much as possible, as I really view these middlemen locums organizations as inherently parasitic (they are a product of market failures and unintended consequences of regulation IMO).

Anyways, I'd like to help her as much as possible, but it's certainly more difficult without some base knowledge of the rates, and especially very recent rates (rates in my field doubled over the past 4-5 years--or maybe I just got smarter; who knows).