Free general surgeon job description templates: general, hospital, private practice, locum, academic, and outpatient, with credentialing and FLSA notes.
6 free templates by setting: general, hospital-employed, private practice, locum tenens, academic, and outpatient, with the credentialing, FLSA, and malpractice guidance the generic templates skip. Download as DOCX.
A general surgeon is a licensed physician, an MD or DO, who evaluates, diagnoses, and surgically treats a broad range of conditions, performing the full scope of general surgery and managing patients through the entire perioperative cycle. It is a highly credentialed role: medical school, an accredited general surgery residency, board certification through the American Board of Surgery, a state license, and DEA registration are all required before a surgeon can operate.
These six templates cover the role across settings: general, hospital-employed, private practice or group, locum tenens, academic, and ambulatory surgery center. Because surgeon hiring involves complex compensation, credentialing, and contracting, these templates define the duties and qualifications clearly while pointing to where specialized recruitment and legal help belong. For the fundamentals behind any posting, the guide to writing a job description helps, and FirstHR supports the onboarding once a hire is made.
TL;DR
A general surgeon is a licensed MD or DO who performs the full scope of general surgery. The role is FLSA exempt (a learned professional, even exempt from the salary-basis test), with compensation built on base plus work-RVU production, not an hourly wage. Required credentials include an accredited residency, American Board of Surgery certification or eligibility, a state license, and DEA registration. Federal data places physician and surgeon median pay at $239,200 or more (May 2024). Download six templates as DOCX, by setting.
What a General Surgeon Does
A general surgeon operates across a broad range of conditions and manages patients before, during, and after surgery: diagnosing, operating, leading the operating-room team, and handling recovery and complications. They cover call, document and code their cases, and work within a wider care team. The defining feature is that this is a physician role, with the clinical judgment and legal responsibility that come with it.
Federal data classifies the role under physicians and surgeons, whose pay is among the highest of all occupations. What stays constant is the surgical scope and the credentialing; what changes is the setting. A hospital employs surgeons on a base-plus-production model, a group offers a partner track, a locum agency places temporary coverage, and an academic center adds teaching. Because the role spans these settings, the six templates here are split by setting rather than offering one generic version.
Duties and Responsibilities
General surgeon duties group into clinical and surgical work, perioperative care, documentation and coding, and compliance and quality. The setting shifts the weighting, but these four areas hold across the role. These are the responsibilities grouped the way the templates use them.
Clinical and surgical
Evaluate and diagnose surgical patients
Perform general surgery procedures
Manage complications and emergent cases
Perioperative care
Provide pre-operative assessment
Lead the operating-room team
Manage post-operative recovery and follow-up
Documentation and coding
Document accurately in the EHR
Code procedures for billing
Maintain complete medical records
Compliance and quality
Maintain licensing and credentialing
Participate in peer review and quality
Cover call as scheduled
A strong posting picks the responsibilities that match your case mix, call structure, and setting, and states the scope clearly. For a structured way to scope any role before posting, the guide to defining job responsibilities walks through the process.
Surgeon vs Surgical Support Roles
The operating room runs on a team, and the titles are easy to confuse. Naming the right one is essential, because a surgeon and the support roles are entirely different jobs at very different pay.
Role
What they do
Type and pay
General surgeon
Performs the operation, MD or DO
Exempt physician, $360K+ mean
Surgical technologist (scrub tech)
Preps OR, sterile field, instruments
Non-exempt hourly, ~$62,830 median
Surgical coordinator / scheduler
Scheduling, authorizations, patient flow
Non-exempt, ~$34K to $46K
Sterile processing technician
Cleans and sterilizes instruments
Non-exempt, ~$47K mean
Only the surgeon is a physician; the rest are hourly support roles that smaller practices and surgery centers commonly hire directly. If your real need is operating-room or office support, you are hiring one of the support roles, not a surgeon.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick the template by setting; the organization, case mix, and compensation model go in the fields. All six share the same clinical skeleton, but each reflects how the role is structured in a particular environment. Use this guide to choose.
General Surgeon (General)
The core physician role
The universal version: a board-certified or board-eligible surgeon performing the full scope of general surgery. The baseline to adapt to any setting.
Hospital-Employed
Health systems, W-2
The employed version: a W-2 surgeon in a hospital or health system, with base plus production pay, integrated care teams, and shared call.
Private Practice / Group
Partner-track
The practice version: an employed-to-partner track in a surgical group, blending clinical work with practice-building and group governance.
Locum Tenens / Contract
Temporary coverage
The contract version: temporary or travel coverage, often 1099, with licensing and malpractice typically coordinated by a staffing partner.
Academic / Teaching
Academic medical centers
The faculty version: clinical practice combined with teaching residents and students and scholarly activity, at an academic rank.
Outpatient / ASC
Ambulatory surgery centers
The outpatient version: same-day procedures in an ambulatory surgery center, with a focus on efficiency, screening, and patient flow.
Match the Template to the Setting
Employing a surgeon in a health system? Hospital-Employed. Offering a partner track in a group? Private Practice / Group. Covering a temporary gap? Locum Tenens / Contract. Combining practice with teaching? Academic. Same-day outpatient procedures? Outpatient / ASC. Otherwise, the General version is the baseline to adapt.
6 Free General Surgeon Job Description Templates
Download all six as a single Word document or copy individual templates. Each follows the same structure: an organization brief, a job summary framing the surgical scope, responsibilities, qualifications, and a compensation note. Fill in the brackets before you post.
Download All 6 Job Description Templates
General, hospital-employed, private practice, locum tenens, academic, and outpatient. All in one DOCX.
Template 1: General Surgeon (General)
The universal version: a board-certified or board-eligible surgeon performing the full scope of general surgery. The baseline to adapt to any setting.
[ASC Name] is seeking a board-certified or board-eligible General
Surgeon to perform outpatient and same-day surgical procedures in
our ambulatory surgery center. You will focus on cases appropriate
for the outpatient setting, work within a streamlined perioperative
team, and emphasize efficiency, safety, and patient experience.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Perform outpatient and same-day general surgery procedures
•Select and screen patients appropriate for the ASC setting
•Provide pre- and post-operative care and follow-up
•Work efficiently within the ASC perioperative team
•Maintain privileges and credentialing at the center
•Meet safety, quality, and patient-experience standards
•Document and code accurately
•Coordinate transfers for cases requiring inpatient care
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•MD or DO; accredited general surgery residency
•Board-certified or board-eligible (American Board of Surgery)
•Active, unrestricted [state] medical license; DEA registration
•Eligible for privileges at the surgery center
•Strong outpatient and laparoscopic procedural skills
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Experience in an ambulatory surgery center
•High-volume outpatient procedural background
•Efficiency and patient-flow orientation
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_____ [base or production model]
Benefits: malpractice, CME, health
To apply, contact __.
[ASC Name] is an equal opportunity employer.
FLSA, Credentialing, and Malpractice
This is the part the generic templates skip, and the part that matters most for a surgeon hire: the exempt classification that sets the role apart from hourly staff, the credentialing gates that must clear before anyone operates, the malpractice coverage that defines the offer, and the disambiguation from surgical support roles. Get these right and your posting and offer are credible.
A surgeon is an exempt learned professional, not an hourly worker
Physicians and surgeons are the textbook example of the learned professional exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Department of Labor treats licensed physicians as exempt from overtime regardless of how they are paid, and uniquely exempts them from the salary-basis test, meaning a surgeon can even be paid on a shift, daily, or production basis and remain exempt. This is the opposite of the hourly, non-exempt workers most hiring templates assume. For a surgeon posting, classify the role as exempt, and structure the offer around base salary, work-RVU production, incentives, and call pay rather than an hourly wage with overtime. Independent locum engagements are often 1099 contractor arrangements instead, which is a different analysis again. This is general information, not legal advice.
Credentialing is the gate: license, boards, DEA, and privileges
Before a surgeon can operate, several credentials must be verified, and the posting should state them clearly. A general surgeon needs an MD or DO degree, completion of an accredited general surgery residency, and board certification or board eligibility through the American Board of Surgery. They must hold an active, unrestricted medical license in the state of practice and a current DEA registration to prescribe, plus certifications such as BLS, ACLS, and often ATLS. On top of licensure, each facility runs its own credentialing and privileging process, verifying training, references, malpractice history, and competency before granting operating privileges. Credentialing can take weeks to months, so build it into the hiring timeline rather than treating it as a formality after the offer. This is general information, not legal advice.
Malpractice and tail coverage are part of the deal
Surgeon compensation packages almost always address professional liability insurance, and the details matter to candidates. Coverage is typically either occurrence-based, which covers claims for incidents during the policy period regardless of when filed, or claims-made, which only covers claims filed while the policy is active. With claims-made coverage, a tail policy is needed to cover claims filed after the surgeon leaves, and who pays for that tail is a frequently negotiated point. A complete surgeon posting and offer should state who provides malpractice coverage, what type, and how the tail is handled, alongside the base, production model, call pay, CME allowance, and relocation. These elements, not an hourly rate, are what define a competitive surgeon offer. This is general information, not legal or insurance advice.
A surgeon is not a surgical technologist or coordinator
The operating room runs on a team, and the titles are easy to confuse if you are hiring. A general surgeon is the MD or DO who performs the operation. A surgical technologist, also called a scrub tech, prepares the operating room, sterile field, and instruments and assists during surgery; it is an hourly, non-exempt role with a median wage near the low sixty-thousands. A surgical coordinator or surgery scheduler is an administrative role managing surgical scheduling, authorizations, and patient flow, also hourly. A sterile processing technician cleans and sterilizes instruments. If your actual need is operating-room or surgical-office support rather than a physician, you are hiring one of these support roles, which are very different jobs at very different pay. Match the posting to the role you truly need. This is general information, not legal advice.
Exempt Learned Professional, Median $239,200+
Physicians are the classic learned professional exemption and are uniquely exempt from the salary-basis test, so a surgeon can be paid on a production or shift basis and remain exempt. Federal data reports physician and surgeon median pay as $239,200 or more (May 2024), with the surgeon mean well above that.
For more on the exempt classification and how it differs from the hourly support roles in an operating room, the exempt vs non-exempt guide explains the professional exemption that applies to physicians.
Qualifications and Requirements
Qualifications for a general surgeon are hard gates, not preferences: the degree, residency, board status, license, and registrations are all required before a surgeon can practice. State them explicitly. The SHRM job description tools describe a good job description as a plain-language summary of a role's real duties and requirements.
Requirement
What to specify
Education
MD or DO from an accredited medical school
Training
Completed accredited general surgery residency
Board status
Board-certified or board-eligible (American Board of Surgery)
License
Active, unrestricted state medical license
Registration
Current DEA registration
Certifications
BLS, ACLS, and ATLS as required
Keep the posting focused on these bona fide qualifications and the clinical role, and keep it neutral, since the EEOC prohibits job advertisements that express preferences based on protected characteristics. The hard credentials belong in the posting as genuine requirements of practicing surgery.
General Surgeon Compensation
General surgeon compensation is among the highest of any occupation and is structured very differently from an hourly role. Anchor on federal data, then recognize that the offer itself is built from several components.
Median $239,200 or More (BLS)
Federal data does not publish a precise median for physicians and surgeons because it exceeds the reporting ceiling, stating only that it is $239,200 or more as of May 2024. The mean annual wage reported for surgeons is well above that, around $364,000, and specialty compensation surveys place average general surgeon pay higher still, commonly in the low-to-mid four-hundred-thousands.
Actual pay varies widely by region, setting, call burden, and production, and a surgeon offer is built from base salary, work-RVU production, call pay, incentives, malpractice and tail coverage, and signing or relocation bonuses, not a single hourly number. Because the structure is complex and the figures so far above a typical role, surgeon compensation is benchmarked against physician compensation surveys and usually negotiated with specialized help. This is general information, not compensation advice.
Who Hires Surgeons and How
Surgeon hiring is a specialized process, not a standard workflow, and it is worth being honest about who does it and how. The same honesty helps a smaller medical employer recognize when the role they actually need is surgical support rather than a physician.
General surgeon vs surgical technologist (scrub tech)
These are entirely different jobs that share an operating room. A general surgeon is a physician, an MD or DO, who has completed medical school and a general surgery residency and who performs the operation, makes the surgical decisions, and carries the liability. A surgical technologist, often called a scrub tech, is a trained allied-health professional who prepares the operating room and sterile field, sets up and passes instruments, and assists the surgical team during procedures. The surgeon is an exempt physician earning several hundred thousand dollars; the surgical technologist is an hourly, non-exempt employee with a median wage near the low sixty-thousands. If your practice or surgery center needs operating-room support rather than a physician, you are hiring a surgical technologist, not a surgeon, and the job description, pay, and process are completely different.
General surgeon vs surgical coordinator or surgery scheduler
A surgical coordinator or surgery scheduler is an administrative role, not a clinical one. These staff manage the surgical schedule, obtain insurance authorizations, coordinate pre-operative testing, communicate with patients, and keep the operating-room calendar and surgeons' cases organized. It is an hourly, non-exempt office role, common in private surgical practices and outpatient centers, paying in the thirty-to-forty-six-thousand range. A general surgeon, by contrast, is the physician performing the surgery. Small surgical practices and surgery centers frequently do hire surgical coordinators and schedulers directly, and those are exactly the kind of administrative roles a smaller employer manages in-house. If your hiring need is keeping the surgical office and schedule running, that is a coordinator or scheduler, a very different and far more accessible hire than a surgeon.
Why hiring a surgeon is usually a recruiter's job
Hiring a general surgeon is a specialized process that most organizations do not handle with a simple job description. Physician compensation runs to several hundred thousand dollars and is built from base salary, work-RVU production, call pay, incentives, malpractice and tail coverage, signing and relocation bonuses, and sometimes a partner or shareholder track, all governed by detailed contracts. Credentialing and privileging add weeks of verification. For these reasons, hospitals use dedicated physician-recruitment teams, and practices and surgery centers commonly engage physician-recruitment firms, locum tenens agencies, or healthcare attorneys. A job-description template is a useful starting point for the role's duties and qualifications, but the offer, contract, and search itself typically run through specialists rather than a standard hiring workflow. This is general information, not legal advice.
After You Hire: Credentialing and Onboarding
Once a surgeon accepts, credentialing and onboarding run in parallel, and credentialing is the long pole. No surgeon can operate until the facility has verified their license, training, board status, and history and granted privileges, which can take weeks to months, so the process should start well before the first day.
Send the offer
Confirm the compensation model, call, and benefits in writing. An offer letter with e-signature documents the terms cleanly for a physician hire.
Run credentialing early
Verify license, boards, DEA, and references, and start facility privileging well before the start date, since it can take weeks to months.
Complete onboarding paperwork
Handle the employment paperwork, malpractice enrollment, and EHR and system access alongside the clinical credentialing.
Store the records
Keep the signed offer, license and certification copies, and credentialing documents organized and current for re-credentialing.
Once the offer is ready, the offer letter template documents the terms, and the onboarding template structures the non-clinical part of the start. FirstHR supports the onboarding and document side of a physician hire: e-signature for the offer, onboarding workflows for employment paperwork, and document management for license, certification, and credentialing records that need to be kept current for re-credentialing. To be clear about scope, FirstHR is an HR and onboarding platform, not a physician-recruitment, credentialing, or payroll system, and the surgeon search, contract, and privileging themselves run through specialized recruiters, healthcare attorneys, and the facility medical staff office. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Key Takeaways
A general surgeon is a licensed MD or DO who performs the full scope of general surgery and manages the whole perioperative cycle.
Use the template that matches the setting: general, hospital-employed, private practice, locum tenens, academic, or outpatient.
A surgeon is an exempt learned professional, even exempt from the salary-basis test, the opposite of hourly surgical support staff.
Required credentials are hard gates: MD or DO, accredited residency, American Board of Surgery status, state license, and DEA registration.
Compensation is among the highest of any occupation; federal data reports physician and surgeon median pay at $239,200 or more (May 2024).
Surgeon hiring runs through physician recruiters and healthcare attorneys; smaller medical employers more often hire surgical support roles directly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a general surgeon do?
A general surgeon is a physician who evaluates, diagnoses, and surgically treats a broad range of conditions, most often involving the abdomen, digestive tract, skin, soft tissue, breast, and endocrine system. The role covers the full perioperative cycle: assessing and diagnosing surgical patients, performing operations, leading the operating-room team, and managing pre-operative and post-operative care, including complications and emergent cases. General surgeons frequently cover trauma and general surgery call, document and code their cases, and collaborate with referring physicians and a multidisciplinary care team. They are licensed MDs or DOs who have completed an accredited general surgery residency and are board-certified or board-eligible through the American Board of Surgery. The work is performed in hospitals, surgical groups, academic centers, and ambulatory surgery centers. This is general information, not legal advice.
What qualifications does a general surgeon need?
A general surgeon needs an MD or DO degree from an accredited medical school, completion of an accredited general surgery residency, and board certification or board eligibility through the American Board of Surgery. They must hold an active, unrestricted medical license in the state of practice and a current DEA registration to prescribe medications, along with certifications such as BLS and ACLS, and often ATLS for trauma. Beyond these credentials, each facility runs its own credentialing and privileging process to verify training, references, malpractice history, and competency before granting operating privileges. Many surgeons also complete fellowship training in a subspecialty. The qualifications section of a surgeon job description should list the degree, residency, board status, state license, DEA registration, and required certifications explicitly, since all are non-negotiable gates to practice. This is general information, not legal advice.
Is a general surgeon exempt or non-exempt under the FLSA?
A general surgeon is exempt as a learned professional under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Licensed physicians are the classic example of this exemption, and the Department of Labor treats them as exempt from overtime regardless of how they are paid. Uniquely, physicians are also exempt from the salary-basis test, which means a surgeon can be paid on a salary, shift, daily, or production basis and still be exempt, unlike most other workers. This is the opposite of the hourly, non-exempt classification that applies to surgical technologists, coordinators, and most support staff. For a surgeon, the offer is structured around base salary, work-RVU production, call pay, and incentives rather than an hourly wage with overtime. Note that locum tenens surgeons are often engaged as 1099 independent contractors, a separate classification analysis. This is general information, not legal advice.
What is the difference between a general surgeon and a surgical technologist?
They are completely different roles that work in the same operating room. A general surgeon is a physician, an MD or DO, who has completed medical school and a general surgery residency, performs the operation, makes the surgical decisions, and carries the clinical and legal responsibility. A surgical technologist, also called a scrub tech, is a trained allied-health professional who prepares the operating room and sterile field, sets up and passes instruments, and assists the surgical team during procedures. The surgeon is an exempt physician earning several hundred thousand dollars a year; the surgical technologist is an hourly, non-exempt employee with a median annual wage near the low sixty-thousands. If a practice or surgery center needs operating-room support rather than a physician, the role they are hiring is a surgical technologist, with an entirely different job description, pay scale, and hiring process. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does a general surgeon make?
General surgeons are among the highest-paid occupations. The federal government does not publish a precise median for physicians and surgeons because it exceeds the reporting ceiling, stating only that the median wage for physicians and surgeons is equal to or greater than $239,200 per year as of the May 2024 data. The mean annual wage reported for surgeons is well above that, in the range of roughly $364,000, and specialty compensation surveys place average general surgeon pay even higher, commonly in the low-to-mid four-hundred-thousands. Actual pay varies widely by region, setting, call burden, and production, and surgeon compensation is typically built from a base salary plus work-RVU production, call pay, and incentives rather than a flat figure. Because the numbers are so far above a typical hourly role, surgeon offers are structured and negotiated very differently. This is general information, not compensation advice.
Who hires general surgeons, and do small practices use job description templates?
General surgeons are hired primarily by large hospital systems with dedicated physician-recruitment teams, by physician-recruitment and locum tenens agencies, and by multi-specialty and surgical groups. Private practices and ambulatory surgery centers do hire surgeons too, but the process is specialized: physician compensation involves complex contracts with base-plus-production pay, call coverage, malpractice and tail insurance, and often a partner or shareholder track, so practices commonly work with recruitment firms or healthcare attorneys rather than a simple hiring workflow. A job-description template is a helpful starting point for defining the role's duties and qualifications, but it does not replace the recruitment, contracting, and credentialing process that a surgeon hire requires. Smaller medical employers more commonly hire surgical support staff directly, such as surgical technologists, coordinators, and schedulers. This is general information, not legal advice.
What is credentialing and privileging for a surgeon?
Credentialing is the process a healthcare facility uses to verify a surgeon's qualifications before allowing them to practice, and privileging is the facility's grant of permission to perform specific procedures. Credentialing verifies medical education, residency and fellowship training, board certification, state licensure, DEA registration, work history, references, and malpractice claims history. Privileging then defines which procedures the surgeon is authorized to perform at that facility based on their training and demonstrated competency. The process is run by the facility's medical staff office and credentialing committee, often takes several weeks to a few months, and must be renewed periodically through re-credentialing. Because no surgeon can operate before credentialing and privileging are complete, hiring organizations should begin the process as early as possible and factor the timeline into the start date. This is general information, not legal advice.
What should a general surgeon job description include?
A strong general surgeon job description names the setting up front, since a hospital-employed role, a private-practice partner track, a locum engagement, an academic appointment, and an ambulatory surgery center role differ meaningfully. It should include a brief about the organization and case mix, a job summary that frames the surgical scope, and responsibilities grouped into clinical and surgical work, perioperative care, documentation and coding, and compliance and quality. The qualifications must list the MD or DO degree, accredited residency, board certification or eligibility, active state license, DEA registration, and required certifications, since these are hard gates. The most valuable additions that generic templates skip are the practical specifics: the exempt FLSA classification, the compensation structure built on base plus production and call, the malpractice and tail coverage, and the credentialing timeline. Close with the compensation model and contact instructions. This is general information, not legal advice.
