What does a job search look like if you want to be a team doctor?

[theriverman]

I've been trying to find info about this on here and elsewhere, and I really don't know what the entire process looks like.

So I go into ortho, FM, EM, PM&R, or whatever. Complete my residency and do a sports medicine fellowship. Now what? What does the job market look like? How much control can you have over where you live and work if you want to be a team physician?

I know college and pros are a little different. Colleges will have their own in house staff, especially if they have a fellowship. As I understand it, a lot of professional teams are covered by groups. IF you're with one of those groups, is that all you do? Can you get into a group just to cover a team? Do pro teams have in house doctors as well?

Almost all of the team doctors I've talked to were D1 college guys, so I'm way familiar with what that "job market" looks like, but I still know very little about the whole career beyond the fellowship. Any help would be appreciated.

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[Freezeout]

The short answer is those jobs are hard to come by. Few physicians are employed by a team, either in college or the pros. As you stated in college there is built in coverage with residents, fellows and attending in the academic setting but you still would see typical clinic patients and have other demands. In the pros, physicians typically provide coverage for the team in exchange for getting to call themselves the “team doctor of x, y or z.” I’ve heard they often actually pay the team to become the physician(s) for a given team but I cannot speak to this first hand.

 

[galactus]

For the most part team docs don’t get paid by teams. It’s the other way around. We (rather the hospital/academic system) pay them to be their team doctors and the right to be called the “team doctors” goes to the highest bidder. We don’t get paid, but the marketing for the practice often pays for itself. Also free gear! Covering big high schools or school districts rather is similar.
Source: team physician for HS, elite club HS, college, and pro. have gained/lost contracts throughout the years. Sometimes we don’t renew a contract with a team/club if the fit wasn’t right or not getting any returns. It’s all a business.