The Family Medicine Network is intended to be a tool for narrowing your job search and/or evaluating a potential job offer. If you have a sense of where you might be interested in practicing, contact the Academy to access our California Family Medicine Network. Academy staff will put you in touch with a family physician practicing in the community you’d like to learn more about.

Some of the questions you may want to ask other family physicians:

• What populations do you serve, and what are the area’s demographics?
• To what extent is there a demand for primary care physicians/family physicians in the area?
• What are the predominant medical groups and/or IPAs in the area, and what kind of inter-group dynamics are there?
• Which health plans are in the area?
• To what hospitals do you admit? How easy or difficult has it been to obtain and maintain hospital privileges? Are hospitals used? Are they voluntary or mandated?
• Is full-scope family medicine, including obstetrics, supported in the community? What is a typical family doc’s scope of practice?
• To your knowledge, are there positions in the area that would allow for loan repayment?
• Are there special practice opportunities in the area (special focus such as sports medicine, or special populations such as Indian Health, for example?)
• What opportunities for academic appointments, teaching, or precepting are available?
• What are the most important community characteristics that a prospective physician should know about? (cost of living, lifestyle considerations, practice environment, etc.)

How to participate:
E-mail the following information to kachermann@familydocs.org. We will then provide the contact information of a physician in the area you requested.

• Name
• AAFP/CAFP Member #
• Address
• Phone
• E-mail
• County in which you are considering practice
• Practice setting you are most interested in exploring (i.e., solo FP group, multispecialty group, group model (Kaiser Permanente), community clinic, etc.)