Adding a doctor to your practice: 5 considerations for how to hire a doctor
As a practice owner or practice manager, you may have already discovered that hiring a new GP can be a challenging task. There is a shortage of available GPs in Australia, which is making it difficult to attract new doctors to practices regardless of the location.
Something that some practices don’t think about is ensuring that the essential elements of what is agreed between the parties are included in a contract. When you do go to hire, regardless of whether the GP will be hired as an independent contractor or employee, a contract is essential.
Usually, it is the responsibility of practice managers to sell the opportunity of the contract and explain correctly why having the arrangement in writing is best for everyone. It needs to be abundantly clear that a contract is beneficial for both parties. Agreements make it clear in the case of a dispute that both parties know what will happen. This is a far better situation to be in, than if there were no contract.
The following five tips will assist you and your practice manager learn more about how to hire a doctor and get that contract signed.
1. Manage Expectations From The Outset
Hiring a new doctor for your practice is a big decision, and you want to ensure you employ a doctor who is the right fit for your practice. One of those decisions is whether the new doctor will be paid on a split of their billings, or as an employee on a fixed hourly rate.
Some medical practices consider paying a new doctor on an hourly rate for the first three months as security or a trial-type arrangement. This approach can be risky. This is because paying a new doctor by the hour for a limited time while they are employed as an independent contractor, could be considered a “Sham Contract” by the ATO.
By having expectations documented and outlined in an agreement, any assumptions or ambiguity about what the role entails and what the terms of engagement are that may have been made, are subsequently eliminated.
Any agreement you have in place must be very clear about what is and isn’t acceptable as a team member in your practice, and include any information about how the practice runs. When we create agreements in these situations, we consider if the practice wants to include what occurs if someone wants a pay rise, or they experience an unforeseen change in circumstances, and how to navigate that. Also essential are any protocols in regard to resignation or termination of a position.
A lot of unnecessary speed bumps can be eliminated through clearly written and agreed upon expectations when a new GP is brought into your practice. Our clients find that setting out clear expectations from the start can assist in reducing the probability of them leaving or realising later that they are not the right fit for the practice.
2. Investigate a values match
As you will be aware, a lot of practices have a particular client or patient niche that they target. This could be sexual health-focused, women’s health, children, or youth services, to name just a few. If you do not have a niche clinic, your practice might be a general practice that already has doctors that cover specific speciality areas of X & Y, and you have a practice that is in need of a doctor that has a special interest in Z.
Being clear about your practice’s specific needs can help you attract the right doctor and also save considerable time. Do not be afraid to market and advertise the position with this area clearly identified.
Additionally, being clear about what your values are as a practice is imperative. If this is something you have not yet detailed for your practice, it can be helpful to go through this process with all current owners and doctors. This is particularly important so that when you go to hire a new GP, you can clearly articulate what your values are.
For example, we had a matter where the values of the doctors who had been retained by a practice were not aligned with the practice’s. The practice was doing a lot of care plans and the doctor was uncomfortable, as they believed the practice wasn’t doing these in an ethical way. It was very clear here that the values were incompatible.
The interview is the best time for both the practice and the potential candidate to discuss their values and determine if there is a match.
From the practice's perspective, this is about asking the doctor questions about experiences that may indicate what their values are. For example, ‘Is there anything that you’ve seen in your career that doesn’t sit right with you?’ Alternatively, ask scenario-based questions asking them what they would do in a particular circumstance.
3. Identify the true cost of hiring a new GP & conditions of engagement
Take the time to consider working out how much the practice is willing to put toward hiring a new doctor and how long it’s going to take them to be at capacity.
Many GPs are paid on a percentage of billings basis. As the practice owner, you need to decide what that percentage will be, what works and what will keep the business profitable. How much are you willing to put forward to secure a new doctor?
Plan forward, provide this information to medical recruiters and document what the future may look like for a potential candidate’s future terms of employment. An example of this may be that after the new doctor has been with you for a year, their percentage might go up after that time. Alternatively, their percentage might increase or decrease based on how much they have billed in a particular period.
Additionally, there could be benefits to reaching certain milestones. This can often be a good incentive, especially for doctors who are financially driven and have a smart marketing strategy, especially when the market is tight.
It is vital to have these conversations to flesh out these important details and have them legally documented correctly.
4. What type of working relationship do you want to have with your new doctor?
Consider what type of relationship you want to have with your new doctor. Do you want to hire them as a new employee, or engage them as an independent contractor?
It is an important decision to make as it has a domino effect on other terms of employment. Not being clear on the terms and expectations that are exclusive to the type of relationship you have, can result in the practice and/or the new doctor facing issues later down the track.
Related article: Employing doctors - doctors as independent contractors or employees?
If you already have doctors in your practice or are looking to employ a doctor soon, we have created a questionnaire that can help you confirm whether the doctors on your team would be classified as an employee or a contractor at law. Find the questionnaire here.
5. Have your agreement accurately documented
Practitioner’s Service Agreements legally document the expectations, terms and protocols for a doctor who is an independent contractor. As this is a legal document, it is imperative that the agreement is documented accurately.
By considering the expectations, values, costs and relationship of hiring a new doctor you will greatly reduce the risk of the agreement being documented incorrectly.
Having this information recorded accurately also means that both the practice and the doctor have a source of information they can rely on and make informed decisions from. It ensures both parties are well-informed and minimises the risk of any issues in the future. Further, if any concerns do arise, it provides both parties with a document to refer to that clearly outlines the terms and any legal grounds they may have to stand on.
Related article: Employing doctors - doctors as independent contractors or employees?
If you are thinking of retaining a new GP, even if you have used a contract previously, book a call with us so that we can go over the legal obligations you have, identify any potential risks based on your specific practice, as well as flesh out what you can and cannot expect or put into your contract. Connect with our team here.