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Curious to hear what an unbiased third party thinks of this scenario.
First year attending in IM subspecialty, joined hospital based multispecialty group private practice. One other MD brought into the group shortly after me but wasn't really a new hire as was already working in PP at the hospital solo and just got folded into the group.
To put it bluntly, she is a narcissist -- multiple people have had conflicts and would call other people for consultations even before I came around, because they did not want to deal with her (sparse notes, not too helpful with tricky cases, abrasive personality).
Naturally after I started, I have had fortunately not had too hard of a time ramping up my own consult numbers, between people that don't want to call my coworker and some hospitalists I get along well with (some of whom are old co-residents). However, this has gotten to the point where census #s are skewed - I am seeing many more consults in comparison, and her RVUs are not at goal.
I know for a fact (because hospitalists have told me) that she has gone up to people asking "Why don't you consult me more?" and has been told that they would be happy to consult if she just toned it down a bit and wasn't so abrasive. Hey, there's an easy solution!
Today, she talked to me saying that I am only getting more consults because I am friends with people from before and that some of the other hospitalists just don't like him and are too sensitive. She said I need to start giving her consults to keep things balanced. When my list is too long, I do actually tell other docs to call her (they don't usually) -- I told her this, but she says instead I need to just give her the patient info for consult and have the hospitalists "deal with it."
I feel very conflicted. I feel like the hospitalist is running the show and should be able to call who they want to help their patients - we all know other docs practice styles and if they don't want my coworker seeing their patient, I can understand why. But at the end of the day, I completely acknowledge that I am on the same team/group as my coworker and on some level they are probably right (I know in training the larger hospital groups used to just alternate/share consults). We also cover each others patients on the weekends, so I don't want to piss her off. But I also find her similarly abrasive -- which makes it very difficult to be a good team player.
I know for a fact this person got hired into the group for "political" reasons - she has friends in hospital administration (CMO), so I have no particular desire to either talk to the group leadership about it and ruffle feathers. But she also stated that the "imbalance in numbers has to change" or else she will talk to the "higher ups." On some level, I am curious to call that bluff and see what the complaint even would be.
Anyway, sorry for the long post/rant. Would love any level of feedback from impartial observers due to my reticence to talk to anyone directly at work about the matter. At minimum people can commiserate / point and laugh even if no helpful advice!
Tim
First year attending in IM subspecialty, joined hospital based multispecialty group private practice. One other MD brought into the group shortly after me but wasn't really a new hire as was already working in PP at the hospital solo and just got folded into the group.
To put it bluntly, she is a narcissist -- multiple people have had conflicts and would call other people for consultations even before I came around, because they did not want to deal with her (sparse notes, not too helpful with tricky cases, abrasive personality).
Naturally after I started, I have had fortunately not had too hard of a time ramping up my own consult numbers, between people that don't want to call my coworker and some hospitalists I get along well with (some of whom are old co-residents). However, this has gotten to the point where census #s are skewed - I am seeing many more consults in comparison, and her RVUs are not at goal.
I know for a fact (because hospitalists have told me) that she has gone up to people asking "Why don't you consult me more?" and has been told that they would be happy to consult if she just toned it down a bit and wasn't so abrasive. Hey, there's an easy solution!
Today, she talked to me saying that I am only getting more consults because I am friends with people from before and that some of the other hospitalists just don't like him and are too sensitive. She said I need to start giving her consults to keep things balanced. When my list is too long, I do actually tell other docs to call her (they don't usually) -- I told her this, but she says instead I need to just give her the patient info for consult and have the hospitalists "deal with it."
I feel very conflicted. I feel like the hospitalist is running the show and should be able to call who they want to help their patients - we all know other docs practice styles and if they don't want my coworker seeing their patient, I can understand why. But at the end of the day, I completely acknowledge that I am on the same team/group as my coworker and on some level they are probably right (I know in training the larger hospital groups used to just alternate/share consults). We also cover each others patients on the weekends, so I don't want to piss her off. But I also find her similarly abrasive -- which makes it very difficult to be a good team player.
I know for a fact this person got hired into the group for "political" reasons - she has friends in hospital administration (CMO), so I have no particular desire to either talk to the group leadership about it and ruffle feathers. But she also stated that the "imbalance in numbers has to change" or else she will talk to the "higher ups." On some level, I am curious to call that bluff and see what the complaint even would be.
Anyway, sorry for the long post/rant. Would love any level of feedback from impartial observers due to my reticence to talk to anyone directly at work about the matter. At minimum people can commiserate / point and laugh even if no helpful advice!
Tim
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