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EW SHOW DAILY 30 ASCRS Symposia Monday, April 16, 2018 by Vanessa Caceres EyeWorld Contributing Writer You also want to find a candi- date who would fit in easily with your current practice culture, Mr. Koch said. He has passed on appli- cants who would disrupt the culture at his practice, which could poten- tially create headaches for all staff members. EW Editors' note: The presenters have no financial interests related to their comments. learn from how the meeting itself operates. "How a board meeting is run correlates with how a practice is run," he said. As you assess a practice's fit, make sure to speak with current and former partners as well as middle managers, said William Koch, COA, COE, Dallas. Administrators who are hiring new physicians should keep a few things in mind as well about a can- didate, including clinical competen- cy and whether the person is a team player and a self-starter, Dr. Hansen said. specialty like ophthalmology, said Zack Zavodni, MD, Salt Lake City. However, doing this can help you drill in more quickly on the right practice fit. Some examples of values that he finds important include col- laboration with physician partners, treating all patients like family, and a work/life balance. A practice's sincerity for their mission and goals is also crucial, said Craig Piso, PhD, Scranton, Penn- sylvania. He has worked in corpo- rate situations where leaders did not truly believe in the company's purported values. To help assess how committed a practice is to its values, Dr. Piso had a couple of suggestions: 1. Note how you are greeted by the office before they know who you are. 2. Notice how clean the facilities are, including the bathroom, waiting room area, and even the quality and cleanliness of magazines. 3. Spend some time in the waiting room, and listen to the banter between patients and staff. The waiting room could tell you much more about the practice culture than perhaps anything else, said Berdine Burger, MD, Charleston, South Carolina. Another indicator of practice health is their investment in train- ing, including certifications and cus- tomer service training, said Hayley Boling, MBA, Elkhart, Indiana. There are several indicators of a healthy practice that job-searching physicians will want to consider, Dr. Piso said. These include: • If there is a managing partner at a practice with two or more phy- sicians. "Those with a managing partner tend to do better than a shotgun approach," he said. • How the board meetings are run. Are there regular board meetings? Do the meetings have minutes? "If they don't have these or they don't share them, those are red flags," Dr. Piso said. You can also N ew ophthalmologists are in demand and usually have no trouble finding a job, thanks to an aging population and a growing number of retiring surgeons. The trickier part is finding a practice that's the right fit for each specific person. Saturday's symposium "Choos- ing the Best Practice for You: Tips and Tricks for Making the Right Choice" gave attendees a deeper perspective on this topic. The sym- posium was sponsored by the Young Eye Surgeons (YES) Clinical Com- mittee and ASOA. One first step is to make a list of what you must have in a new job versus what would be nice but not mandatory, said Mark Hansen, MD, Minneapolis. Some items to consider include location, family obligations, work/life balance, technology at the practice, practice size, call coverage, scheduling, salary, your significant other, and practice culture. Yet even with all these consider- ations, know that you may not get everything you want. Dr. Hansen discussed the example of location. Although location and the weather in a specific area can be a major con- sideration—Dr. Hansen shared the wintry weather report from his area during the session—that shouldn't be the be-all, end-all factor. "Be willing to widen your net a little," he said. Ed Chen, MD, San Diego, said that longer-range thinking is crucial for physicians, who have likely thought in 4-year chunks of time all the way through graduation. Although you can always leave a job that does not suit you, use your job-searching experience to think beyond the short term and find a good long-term fit, he advised. It may be hard initially to define your professional goals and values, especially for physicians in a more technically and analytically oriented Session addresses best practice fit for new ophthalmologists Dr. Chen shares ideas to help new surgeons find the right practice fit.

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