Physician Job Sharing: Is it Right for You?

Physician job sharing provides numerous benefits for not only the physicians themselves, but their employers as well.

Carla Peracchia, MD, of the University of Rochester (NY) Medical Center (URMC), is one such physician who chose flexibility over finances. She and Lara Evans, MD, share their practice at URMC and have done so for nearly 10 years. Peracchia notes that, among other benefits, quality of life has been enhanced as a result of the partnership.

She and Peracchia have developed their own physician sharing model, which they agree works quite well. During the week, each works two full days alone and one full day together at the practice. In addition, Peracchia and Evans each work on-call half of the time.

Consider the benefits and drawbacks of the model:

Pros:

• Better quality of life: less stress, more time with family
• Part-time hours
• Collaboration among physicians for better patient care
• Flexibility
• Ability to serve an increased number of patients at lower overhead costs
• Potential to bring in more revenue than can be generated by a single physician

Cons

• Higher overhead costs if offering physicians full-time benefits
• Mismatch of physicians if one of the providers is more popular than the other
• Less income due to part-time hours
• Less than equal on-duty hours among the physicians