The Hospitalist Company Acquires Austin Hospital Physicians Group – Contracted Physicians for Hire

In case you have not heard of this company, they provide physicians for hospitals, in other words doctors that work on staff but are not direct employees of the hospital, contracted instead. In 2008 the company was awarded the Physician Entrepreneur of the year award. This is a public company that is traded on the stock exchanges. As you may or may not be aware, when you are admitted to a hospital you may not be seeing your primary care physician, but rather your treatment and case is turned over to a doctor who works full time at the facility and then coordinates all your records and care back to your primary care MD when you are released.

Physician Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 - IPC-The Hospitalist Company

I did a very simple search and there are even opportunities for “moonlighters” here, working additional hours as a second job I am assuming. As physician pay with contracts dwindles and here’s where a second job can be had, I think.

If you don’t quite understand what is happening with young physicians today, check out this new documentary called “The Vanishing Oath” and it will help make the picture a little clearer as to what the future holds. The 4 minute video shows a young doctor here who moonlights at Blockbuster so she can have health insurance.

“The Vanishing Oath” – Documentary About the Diminishing Doctor-Patient Relationships When the Environment Does Not Allow Doctors To Care - Exhaustion As Well As Struggles to Take Care of Themselves Sets In

As “for profit” mergers and acquisitions continue, it is taking it toll in more ways than one. BD

From the website:

“IPC is a leading national physician group practice focused on the delivery of hospital medicine. IPC hospitalists manage the care of hospitalized patients in coordination with primary care physicians and specialists. The Company provides its hospitalists with the comprehensive training, information technology and management to support systems necessary to promote the highest quality of care for patients.”

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif., July 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IPC The Hospitalist Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: IPCM), a leading national hospitalist physician group practice company, announced today that it has acquired Austin Hospital Physicians, PA, (AHP) based in Austin, Texas. The acquisition represents a new market for IPC in Texas, adding to its well-established presence in the state. AHP has an annualized volume of approximately 9,000 patient encounters.

R. Jeffrey Taylor, President and COO of IPC, commented, "We are very pleased to enter the Austin market with this high-quality practice. We welcome this opportunity to offer our hospitalist services both to local referring physicians and to Austin community hospitals."