Moonlighting

[planet]

Specifically In-House.

Do your SOs do in house moonlighting? Can anyone explain to me how it works? Do the in house hours apply toward the 80 hr limit? Any problems with malpractice insurance? I am assuming that in house work is covered under the hospital residents' malpractice policies. Is this wrong? What about scope of practice?

Thanks!

my dh did, and the hours did count towards the 80 hour limit. my dh was pathology, so the 80 hours weren't an issue for him. i knew several people who had to sign a form weekly that they weren't going over 80 hours (including work outside the hospital). the people i knew that signed it were lying every week, but it kept the hospital happy.

[DCJenn]

Nope, the military seriously frowns on resident moonlighting. People do it but definitely not in house. I'm not even sure that they could do in-house stuff if they wanted to.

Jenn

[planet]

While a resident and a fellow, DH did in-house moonlighting in the NICUs. He was well paid and it helped tremendously. It was my understanding that it was to count toward his 80 hours, but he was responsible for reporting his hours, so it worked out okay . He is very concerned about liability issues and the advice he was given by the risk management attorney that if he was functioning in the capacity of a resident, then he would still be covered. Hope it works out for you.

Laura,

What does this mean?

Thanks.

[planet]

Ok, I think I get it. So the spot or role at the hospital is an intern spot (or up to whatever level his training is) but an extra one and better paid.

It isn't paid with the bimonthly paycheck?

[planet]

Thanks, yes it makes sense. I forget sometimes how heirachical the hosital is and it makes the issue confusing for me. Does step 3 have to be taken first for in house? I know, I know, I asked dh, but I trust the asnwers of people who have actually done it since so far the hospitals don't have the best track record for getting their stories straight IMO.

where we did residency he did not have to have taken Step 3. He had to have 1 clinical year of residency completed.

ummm .... no. or .... sometimes. in our case it all depended on the hours being submitted properly by the resident or attending who was overseeing the thing ... and I think you can guess how often that happened.

Annie -- you're cruel. Just laughing at the poor, hopeful Janet.

[KCwife]

No moonlighting allowed here by the surgery dept. for the entire 5 years. Blows.

[planet]

Annie -- you're cruel. Just laughing at the poor, hopeful Janet.

Go ahead, laugh. :>

If we weren't so poor I wouldn't be so hopeful. I know I'm not the only one with a moonlighting $ wish list.

[planet]

8)

Check his residency contract to see if it mentions anything about their moonlighting policy. DH wasn't allowed to moonlight until halfway through second year. And his program only allowed 24 moonlighting hours a month. DH did way more than that....basically, as long as it wasn't affecting his residency work, the program director didn't have a problem with it.

As far as malpractice, DH was covered under his program's policy because he wasn't doing anything above and beyond his normal job (similar to what Laura said)....in-house moonlighting consisted of working in Convenient Care. And in-house moonlighting pay was included in his monthly paycheck.

There are a lot of moonlighting options out there for ER docs. Your best source of info will be senior residents....they'll fill you in on how to go about looking for moonlighting gigs, who offers adequate malpractice coverage, who pays the best.

[planet]

Thanks Erica,

I'm going to ask senior residents at the next get together. I hate to be so pushy about this, but it would make a huge difference in our lives to have a little extra ...yeah, ok, a whole extra paycheck really. I'm not sure how to bring it up tactfully though.

[MrsC]

No moonlighting allowed here either. DH has heard of residants doing it at other hospitals though. Quite honestly, I don't know when he'd find the time to do it anyway. He's lucky if he gets one day a week off.
As far as I know there are licence restrictions too, depending on the state.

Janet, I'm sure the senior residents would be very open to answering any of your moonlighting questions. Remember, they were in your position just a couple of years ago and know how much the extra paycheck is sorely needed. Moonlighting was always the big topic of discussion.

Do you have Kaiser Permanente in your area? They tend to hire a lot of per diem docs and have great malpractice coverage.

One warning about moonlighting...several of DH's classmates held gigs where they were the only physician covering a small ED (usually overnight or on weekends.) The pay was great and their malpractice was fully covered, but it was very risky since they were the only ones on duty. It's better to stick with convenient care/urgent care type jobs, at least in the beginning.