Most lucrative way to practice as fam doc?

[canlrn96]

This may sound obnoxious but as a resident (PGY1) with a ton of debt and increasing personal responsibilities, i want to know out of curiosity what is the most lucrative way (whether you enjoy it or not) to work as someone with fam med training (no plus one) ie locums, insurance, admin etc.

 

Please share

[Soon2BeMD]

I’m a PGY1 in Quebec and from what I’ve gathered speaking to several staffs, the things that seem to pay the most are inpatient work. I’ve heard you can make anywhere from 15-18K per week covering the FM ward and the staffs that do it typically either do it once per month or once every 8 weeks, but you have the option to do more if you wish. 

Another thing that is extremely lucrative is practicing rural. Lots of staffs will pick up short term contracts and the money you’d make in a week up north is the equivalent of what you’d make in a month of clinic in an urban setting. So it’s definitely extremely lucrative but also quite intense.

Clinic can be lucrative if you’re efficient especially if you’re doing FFS. However, the staffs I know that do rural or hospitalist work in their practice use clinic as a downtime so they’ll typically opt for an hourly rate so it’s more relaxing than FFS but pays less of course.

All this to say, if you want to make bank as a fam doc, it’s absolutely doable. You just gotta do the stuff that actually pays. Doing clinic solo will still get you a good life but if you really want the big bucks, I would add inpatient + rural in the mix and you’ll comfortably melt those debts in no time.