How much does a Dominican Doctor make?

It can vary a great deal of course. We have a friend of the family yhat is doing her specialty now and she makes less than RD30k a month. Then again I'm sure my orthapedic surgeon is bringin in big bucks because he replaces kness and whatnot and that starts out at RD150k if I remember correctly. A couple of those a week and I'm sure he stands to make a good bit of money.

You question is too open-ended.
there are doctors selling insurance
there are doctors driving taxis
there are doctors running different businesses

And there are doctors who work a lot and do not make a lot of money and there are doctors who work a lot and make millions.

It depends on a person's preparation, vocation and dedication.

Silly question to start with anyway.

HB

A doctor who's just a generalist and works at the government owned hospitals makes less than 20k pesos. Most doctors work several jobs and probably make around 40k pesos a month. Specialists that work at expensive clinics can make hundreds of thousands a month...

DipreSantana said:

How much does a Dominican Doctor make a year?

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Hum

How much does a General Practitioner vs a Neurosurgeon make?
Government Dr. or Private Clinic.

You need to get a lot more specific.

No one said they earned RD$2,000 - the lowest monthly salary mentioned was RD$20,000 by suarezn

A family member is a doctor who combines public hospital and private clinic work and lives a very comfortable upper middle class lifestyle. I have no idea of his total income but he says that the public hospital salary is peanuts compared to what he earns in his private practice.

From DR1 news re: wages of public sector doctors from March 2008 was RD$23k monthly & there have of course been strikes on/off in attempt to get wage increases...

the strike is just the latest attempt by doctors to get a decent living wage, although talks between government officials and medical representatives are in stalemate. The doctors are asking for RD$59,000 per month. They currently receive just RD$23,000. DR1 - Daily News Thursday, 13 March 2008

Doctors still protesting late in 2009... I'm not sure if they ever got a wage adjustment. Aug 14, 2009 news indicates they'd been trying for more than a year for a salary increase DR1 - Daily News Friday, 14 August 2009

Well in the clinic I m in, most of these guys max out at no more than $30K(US) which is like 1M pesos por ano, I guess that s like 90K pesos por mes. This is a VERY good living for these guys and this is also private practice. Government doctors are in that range you mentioned above maybe $650 month. Maybe higher if they are in the Public Health Ministry or something. But they seldom get paid consistently that s why they moonlight as plumbers and taxistas. It also depends on where they went to school. Guys who went to school in NA or Europe are in greater demand than those who go local. Multi-language also get you a bonus because your clinic can advertise that it specialises in foreigners. I dont get paid like they do because I got a lump sum grant from a non profit and to investigate the prevalence of a specific birth defect/developmental disability.
If you want to come here I d say its cool...you wont make much as a physician so you had better be devoted to your Hippocratic Oath. You can be the king of all things...as long as you also like to barter compared to $ payment. Its cool, you will never have to cook your own food, wash your own clothes, or clean your apartment. And I m a lazy slob so its great. The people can use the attention especially in pediatrics and if you prefer the campo vs the ciudad you will be MORE appreciated. But in the campo the ratio of geriatric patients increase.

PLUS, the only drawback I find is getting a competent secretary who knows enough medical terminology to keep your records accurate.

DipreSantana said:

I don't understand, so the top tier makes about 30K US, that seems very low. How hard is it to get into a residency program in the US, after going to, let's say INTEC.

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No no, that is in one clinic, that's aside others errands those doctors may have someplace else, the top tier of doctors make RD$250-500K (US$7-12K) a month, maybe more, but that is with a specialization and established reputation. The average doctor in the DR makes about US$1.5-2K a month.

DipreSantana said:

I don't understand, so the top tier makes about 30K US, that seems very low. How hard is it to get into a residency program in the US, after going to, let's say INTEC.

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Hmmm, there may be guys who make more especially in the frivolous cosmetic areas, breast augmentation and vaginal reconstruction is a cash business. Well, 30K is low in the US, but its is pretty nice here. Thats $2500 a month compared to the average person who is getting $200-300. Where you could get a residency in the US depends on where you apply and what kind of relationship your school has with the university hospital you re gong to. UASD and PUCMM have several relationshps with schools in the US. Of course Tulane in NO, U of Miami Jackson, in Miami are good schools for residency here. Hmmm, mostly you can get a resiency from if you select an underserved community in the US...rural counties, Indian reservations(my dad did that, they sent him to Alaska to work under the Bureau of Indian Affairs), federal agencies, Public Health Service, Border Patrol, Federal Bureau of Prisons, etc. I met a Cuban American guy in Hackensack who attended school at UASD in the la capital and did his residency there in Santo Domingo. He had his records reviewed by the NJ Department of State and since he was American from here he took his boards in English, allowing him to practice in NJ. Now his job was a professional physician to a drug testing laboratory. I dont know if you consider that to be good or not. Its not Chief of Oncology at UMDNJ but its not some dude writing scrip's on a porn shoot neither. I guess it is what you make it. If you are concerned about money I wouldnt be. After a hundred thousand in debt whats another thousand or 2? And my personal sentiment is if Citibank never gets there money, I dont care. If you can obtain more than $30K here you re a super duper Doc. But then again there is nothing that says you have to GP. Be a plastic surgeon and make yourself rich. You can make it there and then do humanitarian clinic here, which is what I do. But to each his own, you know.

There is also the option of doing residency in another latinamerican country like Colombia, Brasil or Argentina. If you want to practice in the United States you re going to have to be licensed but it doesnt matter much if you can pass the licensure test WRITTEN IN ENGLISH. Big whoop? As long as your school isnt fly by night and you dont have to milk a male goat to get your transcripts translated and reviewed, its ok.

The shock of non-union wages

Doctors in the DR are rather like lawyers in the US. No union (AMA) is restricting entry enough to create a constant artificial shortage. Like in the US where there are plenty of out of work or low paid lawyers, you can't make serious money just by being licensed.

In the US any licensed MD can make 6 figures with benefits for putting in 40 hours signing papers. On the other hand the most obscure, isolated, low rated Medical school is quite literally harder to get into than Harvard business school [taking 5% rather than 10% of a very qualified applicant pool]. After Medical school there is more hazing and more union barriers to entry during internship and residency.

The DR is what it's like without a powerful union literally written into the law of every state and very effectively restricting entry to the profession. It's a lot less torture to get in, but getting in is no guarantee of anything.

For anybody who already is a licensed MD in the US, if you hate your job try going on the internet and looking for a corporate or government position. You won't be practicing much medicine but it can be quite low stress and well paid. You can then do what you want on vacations/leaves including working in places you can really do some good.

Manzana said:

Doctors in the DR are rather like lawyers in the US. No union (AMA) is restricting entry enough to create a constant artificial shortage. Like in the US where there are plenty of out of work or low paid lawyers, you can't make serious money just by being licensed.

In the US any licensed MD can make 6 figures with benefits for putting in 40 hours signing papers. On the other hand the most obscure, isolated, low rated Medical school is quite literally harder to get into than Harvard business school [taking 5% rather than 10% of a very qualified applicant pool]. After Medical school there is more hazing and more union barriers to entry during internship and residency.

The DR is what it's like without a powerful union literally written into the law of every state and very effectively restricting entry to the profession. It's a lot less torture to get in, but getting in is no guarantee of anything.

For anybody who already is a licensed MD in the US, if you hate your job try going on the internet and looking for a corporate or government position. You won't be practicing much medicine but it can be quite low stress and well paid. You can then do what you want on vacations/leaves including working in places you can really do some good.

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I didnt agree with most of your post. A butt wad medical school is WAY easier to get into than the top tier(butt wad meaning small non status community medical college)...Excluding HArvard and Yale, it is just as difficult to get into school at Howard or University at Buffalo as opposed to any school in the Southeastern US, or Northwestern US. If you pick the right school in a small community you can be assured entrance. Now in order to enhance how lame your school is you ll have to pick an awesome place to do your residency. Like for instance...go to school in the Texas panhandle, then residency in Russia. Or school at Louisiana State University, Oregon State U., Hawaii and intern in Nagasaki, Japan, Vietnam, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. That compensates for any schmuck who went to Brown and then the Mayo Clinic. He has a finer pedigree but you got panache. And panache works good in private practice. It also shows that you can work in any environment.

And you cannot just sign a contract at any ol'hospital and get 6 figures. No way! Your earning potential depends on specialty and size of the hospital. In NYC all hospitals are teaching hospitals but they dont all have nor offer the same services. Some communities have no teaching hospitals nor comprehensive services. The most widely growing aspect of practical medicine is community health clinics, most usually in underserved areas, urban and rural.

In the future we are all screwed.

And if you dont like practicing medicine you can always teach and still get paid. And an MD is the equivalent of a PhD so you can teach at/in different venues:medical college, undergrad college, high school. There is always consulting, forensics, research, etc.

Here in the DR, if you can pay for it, then you can get into PUCMM Medical School. And if you spoke english by year 3 you could look for a residency program in a teaching Catholic hospital(they have one in Camden, NJ, DC, PR). I m not sure about UASD but could it be any different? But really, HOMS in Santiago is pretty good and that is a teaching hospital also. Due to the lack of national health insurance here you ll see some things there that classify as Level 1 trauma, but then again those people have $$ for medication and doctors. In the campo you ll see harsh life or death stuff, but no way to remedy anything.

RacerX said:

I didnt agree with most of your post. A butt wad medical school is WAY easier to get into than the top tier(butt wad meaning small non status community medical college)...Excluding HArvard and Yale, it is just as difficult to get into school at Howard or University at Buffalo as opposed to any school in the Southeastern US, or Northwestern US. If you pick the right school in a small community you can be assured entrance. Now in order to enhance how lame your school is you ll have to pick an awesome place to do your residency. Like for instance...go to school in the Texas panhandle, then residency in Russia. Or school at Louisiana State University, Oregon State U., Hawaii and intern in Nagasaki, Japan, Vietnam, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. That compensates for any schmuck who went to Brown and then the Mayo Clinic. He has a finer pedigree but you got panache. And panache works good in private practice. It also shows that you can work in any environment.

And you cannot just sign a contract at any ol'hospital and get 6 figures. No way! Your earning potential depends on specialty and size of the hospital. In NYC all hospitals are teaching hospitals but they dont all have nor offer the same services. Some communities have no teaching hospitals nor comprehensive services. The most widely growing aspect of practical medicine is community health clinics, most usually in underserved areas, urban and rural.

In the future we are all screwed.

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Although the number of applicants has declined substantially (I haven't seen survey data but I suspect that the difficulty sunk in over time) there are still well over twice as many formal applicants to Medical School as openings and virtually all those applicants have top grades, all their pre-med ducks in a row, and are paying non-trivial fees so they think they have a chance. The less serious have already made other choices. A majority of people who try very hard to get into US medical schools never get accepted anywhere.

Just about anybody who gets a BA can get into some law school. Many of the rejected applicants to low tier Med school get into top tier programs in other graduate schools.

I wasn't talking about hospitals or "practicing" medicine. I was talking about getting a job with a company/agency that needs a licensed MD. They generally pay 100K and up for that qualification alone. Most large corporations employ MDs, ditto lots of Federal and state agencies. Drug companies employ busloads. Most don't practice medicine in the ordinary sense of that phrase nor do they do research. They review employee Medical claims, do employee exams, pitch drugs at seminars, etc.

As far as panache, I can see doing what you love but not for image. Who is it that is supposed to be impressed? What's the objective? Once you do a residency anywhere you are in the club as far as corporations and agencies are concerned. In private practice a few patients might care about Brown and the Mayo clinic- most would only care about whether they like you.

Get in anywhere, do a residency anywhere, and you can make enough to pay off the massive student loans and try to recover from years of hazing (24 hour on calls etc).

DipreSantana said:

Thanks for the replies, now I have another question.

UTESA VS UNIBE VS INTEC, which one?

I've searched a ton, and apparently INTEC would be the best choice, but how much does it cost for a Dominican citizen, how much do they all cost per credit or semester?

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This is an earlier thread on the topic:
http://www.dr1.com/forums/santo-dom...er-intec-unibe-deals-better-usa-students.html

Manzana said:

Although the number of applicants has declined substantially (I haven't seen survey data but I suspect that the difficulty sunk in over time) there are still well over twice as many formal applicants to Medical School as openings and virtually all those applicants have top grades, all their pre-med ducks in a row, and are paying non-trivial fees so they think they have a chance. The less serious have already made other choices. A majority of people who try very hard to get into US medical schools never get accepted anywhere.

Just about anybody who gets a BA can get into some law school. Many of the rejected applicants to low tier Med school get into top tier programs in other graduate schools.

I wasn't talking about hospitals or "practicing" medicine. I was talking about getting a job with a company/agency that needs a licensed MD. They generally pay 100K and up for that qualification alone. Most large corporations employ MDs, ditto lots of Federal and state agencies. Drug companies employ busloads. Most don't practice medicine in the ordinary sense of that phrase nor do they do research. They review employee Medical claims, do employee exams, pitch drugs at seminars, etc.

As far as panache, I can see doing what you love but not for image. Who is it that is supposed to be impressed? What's the objective? Once you do a residency anywhere you are in the club as far as corporations and agencies are concerned. In private practice a few patients might care about Brown and the Mayo clinic- most would only care about whether they like you.

Get in anywhere, do a residency anywhere, and you can make enough to pay off the massive student loans and try to recover from years of hazing (24 hour on calls etc).

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I only agree with you on the law school quote.

I dont know about that pharma quote. Most guys who work for pharmas have to have a relationship with a hospital. Most pharma clinics are in major hospital systems, at least to my knowledge. When I worked with Pfizer in Connecticut they operated out of Yale University Medical Center. When I was with Bristol Myers Squibb they were in Robert Wood Johnson Hospital, in Trenton and UMDNJ Hospital in New Brunswick. Glaxo Wellcome Smith Kline Beecham was in the University of Penn, center city Philadelphia. Wyeth Ayerst also had a pharma in Philadelphia. There are others those are just the places I worked. Shoot someplaces may have 1 doctor on staff but most of the work is done by nurse practitioners or physicians assistants.

Say what you want to bro, but my dad went to med school U of Chicago and he told me when he finished to try down south because they are less selective than up North. I had a 2.6 when I graduated from State University of NY-Oneonta and I got in LSU-New Orleans. You need to compliment your application with needs, languages, skills, stuff like that that shows you re more of an asset than some schmuck with a 4.0 but no life. Especially in a great place like NO.

The thing about the image is reality is people will look to that when they decide to give you a hoi poloi appointment. The Brown, Mayo Clinic, NFL team physician bull sells. CalState, the free Clinic downtown Detroit, and the Walmart help truck, not so much. Thats a fact. When people have no idea of who is good or not they look for status symbols. You believe that "residencies anywhere and good everywhere". Not so. Tell a guy you did yours in the Ozarks or Beverly HIlls, which do you think we ll be talking about? Tell them you went to Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles or you were appointed to the Lakota Indian Reservation in South Dakota and see when their eyes will glaze over. My point is who cares about money. It will come no matter where you go...and besides if they never get it back, sucks to you for giving it to me. You cant put a price on being healthy.

For the OP asking about local schools, I dont know...but does it matter? You speak spanish, if you cant get in here there is always Cuba, Colombia, or Argentina