Guthrie Clinic

Group Practice in a Healthcare System

Guthrie's multispecialty group practice, founded in the 1912 by Dr. Donald Guthrie, serves a wide geographic area, with numerous regional offices and facilities that allow you to practice in a small urban center or a rural area, depending on your preference. You'll join a group practice that includes over 275 physicians and surgeons representing specialties ranging from allergy to family medicine to vascular surgery. 

About Group Practice

A group practice offers unique benefits and advantages to physicians, and for many doctors, the group practice model is ideal. Benefits of group practice include clinical and professional advancement opportunities such as leadership positions – an advantage to consider if you’re looking to build your career over time. Management training is available in-house for those physicians considering leadership options. Many Guthrie physician leaders hold MBAs, and the numerous colleges and universities in the region offer opportunities to pursue your master’s in business administration. You can also become part of the clinical faculty, helping to teach residents and educate the next generation of physicians.

Vision and Values of the Group Practice Model

The core philosophy of the group practice model is that "we are better together than we are separately." Having multiple specialists under the same roof ensures easy access to colleagues when questions arise and allows for in-house referrals to specialists, ancillary services such as radiology and more. A group practice setting affords you the time to perform research and teach while still remaining dedicated to your patients. And while publishing is encouraged, it’s not required, leaving the option to pursue such avenues up to you and the constraints of your schedule. Above all, the group practice operates as a patient-centered environment, with an emphasis on commitment to quality patient care and personalized attention.

Advantages of Group Practice

If you’re looking to join a group practice right out of residency, advantages to consider include the group practice’s built-in referral system, easy access to mentors in your own specialty and other specialties, as well as the opportunity to teach (click here to learn more about Guthrie’s residency programs). And when it comes to establishing a patient base, Guthrie has a large primary service area -- a 75-mile radius -- and a large referral area encompassing 23 communities in northern Pennsylvania and southern New York.

If you’re already in practice and are considering a switch to a group practice environment, a group practice means no longer managing your own malpractice coverage and other administrative responsibilities such as billing, pre-op paperwork and insurance contract negotiations. A centralized administrative function and infrastructure are provided by practice managers and administrators, leaving clinical care and medical management under physician direction. This administrative support includes the usual billing and financial systems necessary.

Plus, with the physical proximity of the Clinic and Robert Packer Hospital, being on call or doing rounds doesn’t involve driving through bumper-to-bumper traffic in a densely-populated urban area – your patients are just down the hall. If you practice at a regional office in addition to the main clinic in Sayre, driving back and forth is all highway driving as well.

Additionally, the existence of medical education, nursing education and allied health programs (respiratory therapy, clinical laboratory science, and radiology) mean that Guthrie is a learning and teaching environment.