A Little About My Current Full-Time Urgent Care Gig In Portland, Oregon
I’ve gotten some questions about what my hours are, what my pay is and what my responsibilities are.
Work Hours
When I started here beginning of 2014 my schedule was divided into 2 week blocks with eight 10-hour-shifts per paycheck.
- Week-1 I would work a Tuesday and Wednesday.
- Week-2 I would work every day except Friday.
The weekday shifts were (are) from noon-10pm and the weekend shifts from 9am-7pm. There is always an hour of lunch somewhere in the middle of each shift.
What I liked about this is that I would get every other weekend free. It was also great having the mornings free so that I could run errands, sleep in and go to the gym. Working every other weekend wasn’t a big deal because I would get off usually around 6-7pm which would still allow time for socializing.
What I didn’t like about that schedule is that I would only get 1 day off during a 7-day run of 10-hour shifts each. That can be a bit exhausting. Also, getting off late at night means you get home late which doesn’t leave much time to wind down before going to bed. My wind-up (morning routine) and wind-down times are really important to me. This is how I am able to go into work and leave my personal shit at the door and same when I come home — I don’t bring work stress home with me.
Work Salary
At this job I am a full-time employee with full benefits. My salary is around $210,000 gross annually. The paychecks are given every 2 weeks in W2 format which means my taxes are deducted.
I get a 401(k) which is matched at 2%. My employer also gives me a 10% Money Purchase Plan, also called a 401(a). And it gets better, they also offer me a Cash Balance Plan to which they also contribute at a 10% rate.
So, I make $210k and I get another 22% in salary matches annually. There is also medical health insurance, dental benefits, disability insurance and life insurance.
Work Responsibilities
Show up to work without being drunk… jk. It’s simple, I’m expected to see around 2.5 patients an hour. During many shifts I see much less than that. A few times I see right around that and rarely I will see 3-4 patients an hour. As an urgent care doctor I am expected to repair lacerations, do joint injections, reduce joint dislocations, remove foreign bodies from orifices and eyes.
We do get imaging and lab work here and on occasion have sicker patients that need CT’s, MRI’s and Ultrasounds. However, the very sick and unstable we will usually transfer to the hospital.
The support staff are knowledgeable and easy to work with. There is a lot of camaraderie that goes on which makes the day go by smoother. As an urgent care doctor I have access to pretty much any specialist on the phone. I can call the specialist up and bug them with just about any question. It’s like curbsiding a specialist… brilliant. This prevents the patient from getting the runaround.