A minute or two spent Googling “layoffs” yields, Lockheed Martin (approx. 10,000 employees), Stryker Corporation–the medical device manufacturer (1,000 employees), and Orlando Health (400 employees).
Data indicates that approximately 17% of physicians are employed by hospitals, and that half of all physicians hired in 2010 were hired by hospitals.
Many pundits claim, and many physicians believe, that hospital employment is a more stable career path than independent practice. But is that truly the case?
Certainly, no one can predict the future, but what safety is there in a one-year employment contract? What safety is there in a seven year contract if it can be terminated on 90 days notice without cause or, as many physicians have come to realize, with cause if it’s easy for the hospital to manufacture cause?
Hospital employment provides no more safety than any other type of employment.
It certainly does relieve you of having to worry about your future – yeah, right, just as an ostrich with its head in the ground doesn’t need to worry about that lion sneaking up behind it.
