Finding a Collaborating Physician

[anchorRN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

Hey all

I have a little under a year left before I am done with my FNP. I live in a state where a collaborating physician is required for 4 years for non-scheduled drugs, and indefinitely for controlled (Kentucky). What is the normal process for finding a physician to collaborate with if you arent familiar with the physicians in the area (or they are not familiar with you)?

[ArmaniX, MSN, APRN]

Craigslist.

Just kidding. You’ll most likely find your physician upon hire. But maybe someone in Kentucky knows better than my guess.

[anchorRN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

ahh yes that does make sense.

[Oldmahubbard]

The practice that hires you is legally responsible to assign you a collaborator. And you are legally responsible for compliance with the regulations in your state..

Not always as easy as it sounds, as physicians can have collaboration forced on them, if they are part of a medical group.

Somebody has to do it, but no one probably wants to unless very big bucks are involved.

Which you shouldn't have to pay.

In my state, a quarterly chart review of a handful of charts was required. Every three months I was supposed to sit down with the collaborator for a half an hour. Or whatever.

Good luck getting it done if the collaborator is essentially unwilling.

Bad collaborators exist. I am surprised that there are not more horror stories here about it.

Hopefully you'll get a good one, but just beware of the regulations in your state. There can be big fines otherwise.

[anchorRN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

45 minutes ago, Oldmahubbard said:

The practice that hires you is legally responsible to assign you a collaborator. And you are legally responsible for compliance with the regulations in your state..

Not always as easy as it sounds, as physicians can have collaboration forced on them, if they are part of a medical group.

Somebody has to do it, but no one probably wants to unless very big bucks are involved.

Which you shouldn't have to pay.

In my state, a quarterly chart review of a handful of charts was required. Every three months I was supposed to sit down with the collaborator for a half an hour. Or whatever.

Good luck getting it done if the collaborator is essentially unwilling.

Bad collaborators exist. I am surprised that there are not more horror stories here about it.

Hopefully you'll get a good one, but just beware of the regulations in your state. There can be big fines otherwise.

Thanks for the info! I guess I probably have an unrealistic dream of starting my own practice in my town (very rural, the one MD here is about to retire), and found myself wondering how I would go about finding a physician willing to collaborate. Locum work also extremely interests me, but in reality I know I'll need a few years of experience under my belt before I can make either dream a reality. I'm hoping I'll be able to network with some physicians during those formative years as an NP that would be willing to collaborate should I ever decide to do down that road.