Part-time practice in an HMO

Abstract

Part-time practice--practicing fewer clinical work hours than one's HMO norm--is common at Harvard Community Health Plan. Physicians choose part-time practice for diverse reasons: to allow time for other professional activities, such as management or teaching, to facilitate their lives as working mothers, or to ease their work lives. A great potential for difficulties with practice management exists when physician colleagues who devote different proportions of their time to clinical practice collaborate. This can be resolved by a facilitated approach that allows team members to identify problems and generate their own solutions.