Your clinical environment centers on a purpose-built ENT clinic constructed approximately three years ago, featuring 13 exam rooms and a dedicated procedure room. The facility sits one block from Sanford Medical Center Bismarck and the new Outpatient Surgery Center, creating a compact clinical footprint that eliminates the lengthy campus walks and fragmented workflows that plague many academic medical centers. On-site audiology and oncology services allow for coordinated multidisciplinary care without sending patients across town for consultations.
The clinic is equipped with Zeiss microscopes, Karl Storz scopes, and Ambu disposable endoscopes, giving you access to high-quality diagnostic and procedural tools without the frustration of outdated or poorly maintained equipment. Your typical clinic day involves 22 to 25 patient encounters, with two medical assistants or LPNs working alongside you to maintain efficient patient flow and room turnover.
You will operate at two sites: the main hospital and the Outpatient Surgery Center, which opened in 2021 with six operating rooms (four currently staffed) and 18 preop/postop rooms. Your two dedicated OR block days per week provide protected surgical time that you control. OR turnover averages 14 minutes, dropping to as low as 5 minutes for pediatric cases. A full anesthesia team of MDAs and CRNAs supports all surgical cases, and the surgery center continues to expand staffing to optimize utilization.
Facial trauma is managed by the Plastic Surgery team (currently two surgeons, with a third being recruited), freeing you from emergency facial reconstruction call and allowing you to focus on core ENT surgical cases.
Call responsibilities follow a 1:4 rotation shared among the full-time ENT, part-time ENT, and community ENT physician. Once the third ENT joins in 2027, this improves to 1:5. Call runs in 7-day stretches, but the structure is designed to minimize disruption. True call hours run from 5 PM to 9 PM from home with cell phone and pager. If a case is not emergent, it goes on the calendar for the next day rather than requiring you to come in. During a recent week, the on-call physician came in after 5 PM only three times.
Daytime consults are triaged and managed by the NP team unless the case is emergent, meaning your pager stays quiet during clinic hours for routine matters. This structure allows you to maintain evening plans and family time during most call nights.
An optional monthly outreach clinic in Dickinson, ND (approximately 90 minutes west on Mountain Time) provides an opportunity for practice growth without mandatory commitment. Car rental is provided for travel. Patients seen in Dickinson can be referred to Bismarck for surgery, or you can perform outpatient procedures at the Dickinson surgery center. This outreach expands your referral base while remaining entirely at your discretion.
This clinical structure prioritizes your efficiency and quality of life: modern facilities, protected surgical time, manageable call with strong APP backup, and optional growth opportunities that fit your preferences.