Physician Benefits and Opportunities

Maximize your potential both professionally and personally

By the numbers, MedStar Medical Group, the physician enterprise for MedStar Health, is one of the largest in the nation. While that statistic is impressive, what is more powerful is the collective impact of 2,500 physicians working in alignment to design, implement, and deliver the highest quality and safest care.

While you take care of others, it is our responsibility to build and enhance the optimal environment for you to maximize your potential both professionally and personally. We know that supporting physician well-being and professional fulfillment contributes to excellence in clinical care, as well as research and teaching.

The vision of MedStar Health is to be a trusted leader in caring for people and advancing health. To achieve this, we must focus on building MedStar Medical Group as a place where you are proud to practice medicine and refer your patients and loved ones. As we bring to fruition another successful fiscal year for MedStar Health, we take this opportunity to highlight the various opportunities and benefits available to you as a physician in our organization. We continue to seek opportunities that support your well-being and engagement, as well as provide a satisfying and rewarding career.

Please let us know if there are additional ways we can support you. Thank you for all you do for your colleagues, our patients, and the communities we serve. We appreciate your partnership and value your dedication.

Well-being and benefits

Physician well-being program

The MedStar Physician Well-being Program seeks to cultivate a greater sense of personal fulfillment among residents, supporting your mental, emotional, and physical health. The program is coordinated by Dan Marchalik, MD, medical director for Physician Well-being, a role created specifically to respond to the issue of physician burnout at MedStar Health.

The Physician Concierge service provides free and easy access to confidential coaching, counseling, and work/life resources. Medical staff can consult directly with a specialized coordinator, who can offer support and advice for preventing burnout, maintaining work/life balance, and managing other issues that affect your quality of life. Areas of assistance include financial management, stress reduction, caregiver support, self-care, professional growth. All care concierge conversations are confidential and may be scheduled by calling 800-554-1399 or visiting the Physician Well-being website. Other resources offered within and outside of MedStar Health include:

You Are Not Alone Program

Modeled after MedStar Health’s Care for the Caregiver program, this program provides comfort and support for the personal and professional challenges that often occur when a physician is involved in a medical professional liability claim or lawsuit.

Professional Liability Insurance Program and Claims Management Program

MedStar Health’s insurance protections for physicians exceeds the limits of coverage offered in other settings. Comprehensive claims management services for a medical professional liability claim or lawsuit includes many of the best attorneys in the area, as well as a team of experienced claims management professionals.

MedStar Health Retirement Savings Plan 403(b)

The MedStar Health 403(b) plan is a tax-deferred savings account that offers professionally managed investment options and a 50% match of investments, up to 6% of earnings. You are 100% vested in your personal contributions from day one. After three years, you are fully vested in MedStar’s matching contribution.

MedStar Health Deferred Compensation Savings Plan 457(b)

The MedStar Health 457(b) plan provides an additional way to save for retirement, with the potential for tax savings and earnings growth. Plan participation does not require reducing contributions to your 403(b), and your contributions and any earnings are not taxed until you receive them.

MedStar Health physician deferred compensation savings plan 457(f)

The MedStar Health physician 457(f) deferred compensation savings plan provides eligible physicians with the opportunity for additional tax savings and earnings growth.

Wealth Management

Personalized wealth management services provided by our Merrill Lynch partners include risk analysis, estate and tax planning, concierge banking and mortgage services, and asset protection. For more information, please contact a member of our Human Resources team for assistance.

Teaching, research, innovation, and professional growth

Teaching

Developing physicians as leaders is essential for our current and future workforce and care delivery. A variety of programs and opportunities for residents, fellows, and faculty are available to develop the essential skills needed to be an effective leader in medicine.

• Teaching Scholars
  This is a two-year, longitudinal, inter-professional faculty development program. The focus is on research in medical education or a scholarly approach to teaching and learning. The goal is to develop leaders in academic medicine. Applications open in September.
• Faculty Appointments
  Georgetown University Medical Center faculty appointments are available to recognize contributions in teaching, research, and service. There are three tracks: clinician scholar, clinician educator, and clinician. To participate, you must be activity engaged in the teaching of Georgetown medical students, residents, or fellows.

Research

MedStar Health Research Institute (MHRI) offers in-person and online educational opportunities to enhance the research knowledge and practices of our investigators and associates.

• Research Scholars
  The goal of this program is to develop early-career clinicians to be independent, extramurally funded investigators. The program is focused on clinical and translational research. It is also a two-year program, with three-to-four faculty enrolled per year.

• Intramural Grant Opportunities
  MedStar Health’s clinical research activity, impact, and importance will be enhanced by ongoing efforts to build multi-disciplinary and cross-institutional partnerships. Below are several intramural grant funding opportunities that will be available this year. Each one has been developed to foster collaboration, support new investigators, enhance care to our communities and continue to advance health. MedStar Health has developed more than a half-dozen intramural grant funding opportunities to foster collaboration, support new investigators, enhance care, and advance health. For more information, please email research@medstar.net.

• KL2 Junior Faculty Scholars Program
  These awards focus on developing early-career faculty investigators through a multidisciplinary mentored research experience. The goal of these awards is to create independent, extramurally funded investigators, who are active in programs of collaborative research.

MedStar Institute for Innovation

MedStar Inventor Services works with MedStar Health physicians to transform their innovative ideas and discoveries into commercial products. The MInnovations Marketplace is a hub of smaller-scale ideas that advance health care and improve the patient and family experience.

Professional Expense Reimbursement

Generous allowance and reimbursement annually for professional expenses including CME, books/software, professional society memberships, state licenses, CDS, DEA, and board certification/recertification.

Specialty Practice Councils

MedStar Health’s service line-specific councils guide the professional practice of medicine and create consistent models of care, focusing attention on information management, including optimization of the MedConnect Electronic Health Record; quality and safety; clinical practice guidelines to reduce variation and enhance outcomes; operational efficiency; and value analysis of medical and surgical equipment and supplies. The work of the practice councils advances our care delivery model, while providing a voice for MedStar Health providers with respect to how they practice medicine. 

PowerChart Touch

A suite of four mobile apps for convenient and easy access to MedConnect to complete many clinical functions from your personal devices, saving you time and enhancing efficiency. View patient records, reply to messages, place orders, and document notes using Cerner PowerChart Touch, Cerner Message Center, Cerner Instanote, and Cerner Camera Capture.

UpToDate Anywhere

UpToDate Anywhere is a powerful online, evidence-based clinical decision support resource available on your computer and mobile devices. After activation, UpToDate Anywhere provides you with personal point-of-care decision support 24/7. It also records CME credit for researching clinical questions, even when doing so on a mobile device.