Tele Stroke Insights

[Kilo-12 person]

I'm a PGY-4 and will do one year of a stroke fellowship. I recently received an offer from one of the tele-medicine companies to work as a tele-stroke company. The deal is 7on/7off 12 hours shift. The base salary is around $1300 daily and after the 9-10th consult it increases like $200 per consult. I don't think I am going to accept it, only because I cannot see myself seen only patients through a camera. But I would like to known from people doing the job how is the work and how much approximatley are they making . Only reason I would consider it if is making $400K is possible. Thank you.

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[Telamir]

If you know how much the base is and how much per patient over 10 is then you can calculate how many you need to see per day to make it to 400k. There are other threads discussing teleneuro here, and as with everything it’s a mixed bag.

400k is doable in neurology. Many folks here have made more. I say the first 300 are easy. At 350 you’re pretty busy. At 400 you’re typically very busy. After 400 it gets much harder.

 

[Itsarainbow]

I'm a PGY-4 and will do one year of a stroke fellowship. I recently received an offer from one of the tele-medicine companies to work as a tele-stroke company. The deal is 7on/7off 12 hours shift. The base salary is around $1300 daily and after the 9-10th consult it increases like $200 per consult. I don't think I am going to accept it, only because I cannot see myself seen only patients through a camera. But I would like to known from people doing the job how is the work and how much approximatley are they making . Only reason I would consider it if is making $400K is possible. Thank you.

Is a fellowship required for this company? I'm doing a pain fellowship but I want to do 1-2 tele shifts a month to keep up with my neuro and some extra cash.

 

[Kilo-12 person]

Is a fellowship required for this company? I'm doing a pain fellowship but I want to do 1-2 tele shifts a month to keep up with my neuro and some extra cash.

As far as I know is not required.

 

[Kilo-12 person]

If you know how much the base is and how much per patient over 10 is then you can calculate how many you need to see per day to make it to 400k. There are other threads discussing teleneuro here, and as with everything it’s a mixed bag.

400k is doable in neurology. Many folks here have made more. I say the first 300 are easy. At 350 you’re pretty busy. At 400 you’re typically very busy. After 400 it gets much harder.

Thank you! Yeah, now I went back and reviewed some old posts.

 

[Aldertonghen]

Is a fellowship required for this company? I'm doing a pain fellowship but I want to do 1-2 tele shifts a month to keep up with my neuro and some extra cash.

Could I DM you regarding pain fellowship?

 

[Itsarainbow]

Could I DM you regarding pain fellowship?

Yeah sure. I'm in the middle of IV rn

 

[Neurogeneral]

I did teleneurology. I got paid about $175/hr for 9 hr shifts. So thats about $1575 daily for about 18 patients on average daily.

Your pay has a base of $1300. For seeing 18 patients, you get at least another $1600 for a total of $2900 daily. Thats like $530k per year for working 183 shifts, which to me seems like great compensation if they can guarantee that number of consults on a consistent basis.

 

[deathmerchant]

Is a fellowship required for this company? I'm doing a pain fellowship but I want to do 1-2 tele shifts a month to keep up with my neuro and some extra cash.

It would be hard to find a company to allow you to do 1-2 shifts a month. The least I found was 4 shifts (and that is only weekends/nights). Most require 7 or 10 shifts

 

[deathmerchant]

I'm a PGY-4 and will do one year of a stroke fellowship. I recently received an offer from one of the tele-medicine companies to work as a tele-stroke company. The deal is 7on/7off 12 hours shift. The base salary is around $1300 daily and after the 9-10th consult it increases like $200 per consult. I don't think I am going to accept it, only because I cannot see myself seen only patients through a camera. But I would like to known from people doing the job how is the work and how much approximatley are they making . Only reason I would consider it if is making $400K is possible. Thank you.

Yea we had a long discussion on a previous post about this. In addition to other points mentioned there, I would add that tele consults are sometimes more time consuming. You have to remotely log into multiple systems every time and call many people for a single case. Its harder to control the flow and logistics through Tele, if a nurse or tech or doc is causing delays. No one there knows you as well in real life to respect authority as much in real life. A TPA or thrombectomy case can take over an hour by the time you are done with everything. Nights are even worse. And all that assuming every tech /software works seamlessly every time (which it never does).
I am very efficient in real life, but TeleNeuro takes much longer and is much more draining. Maybe its just me, but I doubt many people will be able to see more than 13-15 patients regularly per shift (and that is assuming a regular flow of patients throughout the day).

That being said, >450K is easy for a hard working 7on/7off in Tele.

 

[ProReduction]

Pay was flat from 2017-2023 in TeleNeuro and is now decreasing at many companies, if measured by $ per consult. Companies like Access (was SOC) have been bought by private equity. Every company is trying to pivot to the 25-30 patients seen per shift model. Meanwhile, pay for in-person Neuro has never been higher and will keep increasing. This is largely a consequence of younger Millenials right out of training that are willing to have a full career in TeleNeuro. Back in 2016/2017 you never saw any new grads seeking to have a full Tele career. They supplemented their employed in-person gig with limited Tele, usually quitting Tele once they paid off students loans and bought a house as it is high risk and frequently undignified work. They could walk away from any Tele company that was not paying/treating them well. Fast forward to 2024 where it seems that every new Neuro residency grad entertains a full Tele practice. Pay will always drop as supply increases.

 

[Neurogeneral]

Every company is trying to pivot to the 25-30 patients seen per shift model.

Teleneurology used to be purely “telestroke” but now most of these companies are also doing routine neuro hospitalist rounding consults. They have been quite aggressive in establishing a large footprint in this space. Like you said, many of these groups (like Access Telecare) are backed by private equity and they are looking for the easiest ways to make profits. Besides the stagnant pay for ever increasing volumes, I have seen some companies simply paying by the hour for 8 hour shifts instead of the typical 12 hours for routine rounding consults and hiring either remote or on the ground based mid-levels to supervise to cover more hospitals.

The company I worked for had an interesting model. They were actually a large physician group which happened to have a teleneurology division. Their employed on the ground hospitalists, intensivists, and EM docs were instructed/encouraged to consult the teleneurology division for all consults - effectively squeezing out on the ground private/community neurologists at these facilities.

 

[MC47]

Teleneurology used to be purely “telestroke” but now most of these companies are also doing routine neuro hospitalist rounding consults. They have been quite aggressive in establishing a large footprint in this space. Like you said, many of these groups (like Access Telecare) are backed by private equity and they are looking for the easiest ways to make profits. Besides the stagnant pay for ever increasing volumes, I have seen some companies simply paying by the hour for 8 hour shifts instead of the typical 12 hours for routine rounding consults and hiring either remote or on the ground based mid-levels to supervise to cover more hospitals.

The company I worked for had an interesting model. They were actually a large physician group which happened to have a teleneurology division. Their employed on the ground hospitalists, intensivists, and EM docs were instructed/encouraged to consult the teleneurology division for all consults - effectively squeezing out on the ground private/community neurologists at these facilities.

You will burn out quicker than you think. Then all you want to do is quit. Its not worth it.

 

[deathmerchant]

You will burn out quicker than you think. Then all you want to do is quit. Its not worth it.

Totally agree. Its not worth it. Unless you own your own Tele company- more work/hours for less pay. High risk of litigation and making mistakes. No professional satisfaction. High burnout.