When Dr. Joseph Shields, the only orthopedic surgeon practicing between Juneau, Alaska, and Seattle, Wash., wants to take a vacation, what's the weary doctor to do?
Call Salt Lake City for help, what else?And CompHealth answers.
The nation's oldest and largest locum tenens (that's Latin for "one holding a place") firm today employs more than 1,200 physicians from 14 medical specialities.
With this army of specialists in the wing, CompHealth provided more than 57,000 days of temporary replacement coverage in 1989 alone for physicians practicing in rural areas, large urban hospitals, health maintenance organizations and private practices in every state in the union.
The privately held corporation - which has branch offices in Atlanta, Ga., Grand Rapids, Mich., and Palo Alto, Calif. - recently added certified registered nurse anesthetists, physical therapists and registered nurses to its corps of temporary health professionals.
Quite frankly, physicians say, the nationally known company is Utah's best-kept secret.
Yet it boasts both local headquarters and origin.
In the early 1970s, the University of Utah School of Medicine received a federal demonstration grant to find an efficient way to organize and staff rural health clinics in medically underserved areas of the western United States.
What resulted was a medical network that provided coverage while physicians took vacations and pursued continuing medical education.
The concept of bringing in a temporary doctor to provide coverage - so-called "locum tenens" - proved so successful that hospital administrators, physicians and clinic managers across the country began calling for assistance.
Under the innovative leadership of Dr. Therus C. Kolff, a graduate of the U. School of Medicine, Comp-Health emerged.
Kolff today attributes the company's phenomenal 11-year growth to his employees' unspoken commitment.
In addition to checking the doctor's medical experience and background (with as many as six to 12 references), CompHealth staffers evaluate each potential recruit as if he or she would be treating a member of their own family.
If a doctor or nurse doesn't meet that stringent test, the "red flag goes up." No matter how competent the physician is, he's out of the program, Kolff said.
"I am extremely impressed that they are looking for quality physicians, rather than just physicians who want to work," said Dr. Mark Dell 'Aglio, a CompHealth physician from Pennsylvania who is temporarily employed at FHP's Redwood Center.
Dell 'Aglio, who also provided temporary help for an Alaskan physician, got involved with Comp-Health when he decided in November to change specialities. Until July, when the internist begins a gastroenterology fellowship, he'll keep his "hands in medicine" with the Utah firm.
Company spokeswoman Carolyn Rose said locum tenens generally fall into three categories:
-Physicians who've completed their residencies, but haven't selected a speciality.
-Doctors who want to semiretire, but not leave medicine entirely.
-Doctors who have other full-time careers (one's an illustrator; another a competitive ballroom dancer), but need to work as doctors to supplement their incomes.
Rose said the doctors work as often as they like; they're free to accept or decline any assignment.
When they do work, they're free of many of the traditional hassles _ principally malpractice insurance _ plaguing physicians.
Rose said the company sends about $220,000 a month on malpractice insurance, and $50,000 per month securing licenses so their physicians can practice in new states. Another $120,000 per month is spent on air travel; $48,000 per month on rental cars.
But more than any other figure, the company's revenue statistics reveal its success. Rose said that over the past five years, the firm's revenues have increased 450 percent - from approximately $10 million in 1985 to $45 million in 1989.