6 free templates for private practice, oral surgery, surgery centers, and specialty clinics, each with the licensure, credentialing, and onboarding guidance the generic templates skip. Download as DOCX.
A surgeon evaluates patients, performs procedures, and manages the full course of surgical care. For a small surgical practice, an oral surgery office, or an ambulatory surgery center, hiring one well is as much an administrative task as a clinical one: the role carries a heavy load of licensure, board certification, DEA, malpractice, and credentialing paperwork. That credentialing and onboarding reality is exactly what generic templates skip.
These six templates cover the role across its specialties and settings: a general surgeon baseline, oral and maxillofacial, plastic, orthopedic, an ambulatory surgery center version, and a private practice or specialty clinic version. Each is ready to use, with the licensure, credentialing, and onboarding guidance built in. For the fundamentals behind any posting, the guide to writing a job description is a useful companion.
TL;DR
A surgeon evaluates patients, performs procedures, and manages pre-op and post-op care, and the role requires an MD or DO (or DDS or DMD for oral surgery), a completed residency, an active license, board status, and a DEA registration. Physicians and surgeons have a median wage at or above $239,200 a year. The points generic templates skip are credentialing and privileging (often 90 to 120 days), malpractice and agreements, and HIPAA and OSHA training. Download six templates as DOCX, by specialty and setting.
What a Surgeon Does
A surgeon diagnoses surgical conditions, performs operative procedures, and manages the care around them. The work is licensed and high-stakes: evaluating whether surgery is the right option, obtaining informed consent, performing procedures within a specialty, leading the operating-room team, and directing pre-operative and post-operative care, all under patient safety, infection control, and HIPAA standards.
The federal occupation is physicians and surgeons, within which surgeons are reported as a distinct group. What defines the role is the long training path, an MD or DO degree (or DDS or DMD for oral and maxillofacial surgery) plus residency, and the licensing, board certification, and credentialing that follow. Because the title spans several specialties and settings, the templates here are organized by both.
Surgeon Specialties and Settings
Surgeon work varies by specialty and by setting, even though the core credentialing is similar. Getting both right keeps your posting accurate and attracts candidates who match the actual role.
Specialty / setting
Focus
Common setting
General surgeon
Broad abdominal and soft-tissue surgery
Practice, hospital, ASC
Oral & maxillofacial
Extractions, implants, corrective surgery
1-2 surgeon practices
Plastic surgeon
Reconstructive and cosmetic procedures
Practice, surgery center
Orthopedic surgeon
Musculoskeletal, surgical and non-surgical
Often private practice, ASC
ASC surgeon
Outpatient, same-day cases
Ambulatory surgery center
Private practice
Clinic plus affiliated-facility cases
Owner-led specialty clinic
The independent and specialty settings, oral surgery, orthopedic, plastic, and physician-owned surgery centers, are where small practices most often hire directly. Match the template to your specialty and setting, then adjust the details.
Duties and Responsibilities
Surgeon duties cluster into four areas: evaluation and consent, surgery and the operating room, pre-op and post-op care, and records and compliance. A strong job description picks the specific responsibilities that match your specialty and setting, rather than listing every possible task.
Evaluation and consent
Evaluate patients and surgical options
Obtain informed consent
Explain procedures and risks
Surgery and the OR
Perform procedures within scope
Lead and direct the OR team
Uphold sterile and safety protocols
Pre-op and post-op care
Manage pre-operative preparation
Direct post-operative recovery
Coordinate follow-up and rehab
Records and compliance
Document care accurately and on time
Follow infection control standards
Protect patient privacy under HIPAA
An ASC role weights toward outpatient case flow and discharge; a private-practice role toward clinic work and practice growth. For a structured way to scope the role, the guide to defining job responsibilities walks through the process.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick the template by specialty and setting. The core structure is the same across all six, but each emphasizes the framing that fits a specific kind of surgical role. Use this guide to choose the closest fit, then adjust.
General Surgeon
The flagship version
The baseline for any surgical role: evaluate, operate, and manage pre-op and post-op care, with team leadership. The starting point to adapt.
Oral & Maxillofacial
The strongest small-practice fit
For a small oral surgery practice: extractions, implants, and corrective procedures, anesthesia scope, and an associate-to-partner path.
Plastic Surgeon
Reconstructive and cosmetic
For a practice or surgery center: reconstructive and cosmetic procedures, patient consults, outcomes, and experience.
Orthopedic Surgeon
Musculoskeletal, often independent
For an orthopedic practice: surgical and non-surgical musculoskeletal care, rehabilitation planning, and frequent ASC work.
Ambulatory Surgery Center
Outpatient, privileges-based
For an ASC: same-day outpatient cases, credentialing and privileging, and safe outpatient recovery and discharge.
Private Practice / Clinic
Owner-led specialty practice
For a small specialty practice: clinic plus affiliated-facility procedures, practice growth, and a partnership track.
Match the Template to Specialty and Setting
Broad surgical role: General Surgeon. A small oral surgery practice: Oral & Maxillofacial. Reconstructive or cosmetic work: Plastic Surgeon. Musculoskeletal care: Orthopedic Surgeon. An outpatient surgery center: Ambulatory Surgery Center. An owner-led specialty clinic: Private Practice. When unsure, the General Surgeon version is the baseline to adapt, but always name the specialty and its board.
6 Free Surgeon Job Description Templates
Download all six as a single Word document or copy individual templates. Each follows the same structure: practice and job summary, key responsibilities, qualifications with the degree, license, board, and DEA, and how to apply, with an EEO statement and the credentialing points built in. Fill in the brackets and post.
Download All 6 Job Description Templates
General, oral and maxillofacial, plastic, orthopedic, ASC, and private practice. All in one DOCX.
Template 1: General Surgeon (Flagship)
The baseline for any surgical role: evaluate, operate, and manage pre-op and post-op care, with team leadership. The starting point to adapt to your specialty.
Compensation: $_____ per year, plus [benefits], or production-based
JOB SUMMARY
[Practice Name] is a [specialty] private practice hiring a Surgeon to join our
team. You will see patients in clinic, perform procedures at our affiliated
hospital or surgery center, manage the full course of surgical care, and help
grow the practice. This is a hands-on role in a small practice, with a path to
partnership where applicable.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•See and evaluate patients in clinic
•Perform procedures at the affiliated facility
•Obtain informed consent and explain options
•Manage pre-operative and post-operative care
•Build referral relationships and grow the practice
•Lead clinical and surgical support staff
•Document care accurately and on time
•Follow patient safety, infection control, and HIPAA standards
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•MD, DO, or DDS/DMD as appropriate to the specialty
•Completed residency in the relevant surgical specialty
•Active, unrestricted state license
•Board certified or board eligible in the specialty
•Current DEA registration
•BLS and ACLS certification
PREFERRED
•Existing patient or referral base
•Interest in practice ownership or partnership
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_____ per year, plus [benefits], or production-based
To apply, send your CV and license information to __.
[Practice Name] is an equal opportunity employer.
Licensure, Credentialing, and Compliance
This is the part generic templates skip, and for a surgical hire it is most of the work: the license, board status, and DEA that define the role, the credentialing and privileging that must finish before the first case, the malpractice and agreement paperwork, and the HIPAA and OSHA training onboarding requires. Get these right and your posting is both compliant and credible to a surgeon.
License, board status, and DEA define the role
A surgeon needs an MD or DO degree (or DDS or DMD for oral and maxillofacial surgery), a completed residency, and an active, unrestricted state license, plus board certification or board-eligible status and a current DEA registration. These are not optional lines in the posting; they are the legal floor for the role. State them clearly, and plan to verify each one at hire directly with the issuing source. Tracking license, board, and DEA renewals is an ongoing obligation, since a lapse can stop a surgeon from operating or billing. This is general information, not legal advice.
Credentialing and privileging come before the first case
Before a new surgeon can operate at a hospital or surgery center, they must be credentialed and granted privileges, and before you can bill, they usually must be enrolled with each payer. Physician credentialing and payer enrollment commonly take 90 to 120 days, and some commercial payers run longer, so start the moment the offer is signed, not after. The process is checklist-driven: license, board certification, DEA, malpractice history, CAQH, and PECOS for Medicare. Build it into onboarding so the surgeon can start operating and billing as soon as possible. This is general information, not legal advice.
Malpractice coverage and the heavy paperwork
Surgeon hiring is unusually document-heavy. Beyond the license and board paperwork, plan for a malpractice insurance policy and loss-run history, an employment agreement, and often restrictive covenants or a partnership track. Decide how malpractice coverage is structured, whether claims-made with tail coverage or occurrence, before the offer, since it affects the agreement. Collecting, signing, and storing these documents in an organized way is most of the administrative work of a surgical hire, and it is exactly where a small practice without a recruiting team feels the load. This is general information, not legal advice.
Training and safety before day one
A surgical practice or center is a HIPAA covered entity and an OSHA-regulated workplace, so plan for HIPAA privacy training, OSHA and bloodborne pathogen training, and infection control orientation as part of onboarding, with signed acknowledgments kept on file. For an ASC or specialty practice, add facility-specific safety, equipment, and emergency protocols. None of this is unique to large hospitals; a small surgery center carries the same training obligations, just handled by fewer people. Build the training into a first-week checklist so nothing is missed. This is general information, not legal advice.
Long Credentialing Timeline, High Pay
Physician credentialing and payer enrollment commonly take 90 to 120 days, so start at offer, not start date. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports physicians and surgeons earn a median wage at or above $239,200 a year, among the highest of all occupations, which makes a slow, disorganized onboarding genuinely expensive. This is general information, not legal advice.
Surgeons are hired on credentials, surgical skill, and fit with your specialty and setting. Scale the requirements to the specialty and board.
Requirement
What to look for
Education
MD or DO; DDS or DMD for oral and maxillofacial surgery
Training
Completed residency in the relevant surgical specialty
License
Active, unrestricted state license
Board and DEA
Board certified or eligible; current DEA registration
Life support
BLS and ACLS certification
Privileges
Eligible for privileges at your facility or center
Keep the posting neutral and inclusive, since the EEOC prohibits job advertisements that show a preference based on a protected characteristic, and the SHRM guide covers the standard sections of a job description.
Surgeon Pay
Surgeon pay is among the highest of any occupation and varies widely by specialty, region, and setting. Set your offer using government data as a baseline, then adjust for specialty, market, and whether pay is salaried, production-based, or partnership-track.
Median At or Above $239,200 (BLS)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that physicians and surgeons earn a median annual wage at or above $239,200 as of May 2024, the top of the published range, and many surgical specialties earn well above it. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons, for example, report a mean annual wage above $340,000.
Because pay varies so much by specialty and arrangement, benchmark to your specific specialty and setting rather than a blended figure, and state the structure clearly, whether salary, production-based, or a path to partnership.
Hiring for a Small Practice or ASC
A large hospital or health system hires surgeons through a recruiting and credentialing department. A private surgical practice, an oral surgery office, or a physician-owned ambulatory surgery center does not. The owner or office manager writes the posting, screens candidates, verifies credentials, runs credentialing, and onboards the new surgeon directly. Because a surgeon is an expensive, high-stakes, document-heavy hire, getting it right matters even more for a small practice.
Same Credentialing Load, Smaller Team
A small surgical practice or surgery center carries the same licensing, credentialing, malpractice, and training obligations as a large hospital, just handled by fewer people, so a clean, repeatable hiring and onboarding process is worth setting up once. That is where FirstHR fits: e-signature for the employment agreement, restrictive covenants, and consent forms, document management to store the license, board certification, DEA, malpractice, and credentialing paperwork with renewal reminders, task workflows to route credentialing and onboarding steps across the office manager and hiring physician, and training modules for HIPAA, OSHA, and infection control. FirstHR helps organize the credentialing workflow with document collection and task routing; it is not a primary-source-verification or payer-enrollment service, and it does not run payroll or administer benefits, so pair it with those providers. Applicant tracking is coming soon.
From Hiring to Onboarding
The job description is step one. Once a surgeon accepts, the same document becomes the basis for the offer and a credentialing-heavy onboarding. Because the surgeon cannot operate or bill until credentialing and privileging are complete, and because the paperwork is substantial, getting the agreements, credentials, and training right from day one is what keeps the start date on track.
Send the offer and agreements
Confirm pay, schedule, and terms in writing, with an employment agreement, restrictive covenant, and any partnership terms the surgeon can e-sign.
Start credentialing and privileging
Begin credentialing, privileging, and payer enrollment at offer, since the process commonly runs 90 to 120 days before the first case and first bill.
Collect documents and train
Gather the license, board certification, DEA, and malpractice paperwork, and complete HIPAA, OSHA, and infection control training before day one.
Store records and track renewals
Keep signed agreements and credentials organized, and set reminders so license, board, DEA, and malpractice renewals never lapse.
Once your offer is ready, the offer letter template handles the next step, and an onboarding template gives the new hire a structured start. FirstHR connects the offer, e-signature, training, the onboarding workflow, and document management for licenses and credentialing in one place so a small practice or surgery center can manage the full process from one system. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform that helps organize credentialing through document collection and task routing, not a primary-source-verification, payer-enrollment, or payroll tool, so connect those separately. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Key Takeaways
A surgeon evaluates patients, performs procedures, and manages pre-op and post-op care, with the work defined by specialty.
Use the template that matches the specialty and setting; oral and maxillofacial and orthopedic skew toward small, independent practices.
The role requires an MD or DO (or DDS or DMD), residency, an active license, board status, and a current DEA registration.
Credentialing, privileging, and payer enrollment commonly take 90 to 120 days, so start the moment the offer is signed.
Physicians and surgeons earn a median wage at or above $239,200, so a slow, disorganized onboarding is genuinely expensive.
Onboarding is where the load sits: malpractice, agreements, credentialing documents, and HIPAA and OSHA training.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a surgeon do?
A surgeon evaluates patients, performs surgical procedures, and manages pre-operative and post-operative care. Day to day that means examining patients and determining whether surgery is the right option, obtaining informed consent, performing procedures within their specialty and scope, leading the operating-room team, and directing recovery and follow-up. The exact work depends on the specialty: a general surgeon handles a broad range of abdominal and soft-tissue procedures, an orthopedic surgeon treats musculoskeletal conditions, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon performs extractions, implants, and corrective procedures, and a plastic surgeon does reconstructive and cosmetic work. Across specialties, the role is licensed, board-track, and bound by patient safety, infection control, and HIPAA standards. This is general information, not legal advice.
What qualifications and credentials does a surgeon need?
A surgeon needs an MD or DO degree, or a DDS or DMD for oral and maxillofacial surgery, followed by a completed surgical residency in the relevant specialty. To practice, they need an active, unrestricted state medical or dental license, board certification or board-eligible status from the relevant board such as the American Board of Surgery, and a current DEA registration to prescribe. Most roles also require BLS and ACLS certification. To operate at a facility, the surgeon must be credentialed and granted privileges there. For a posting, state the degree, residency, license, board status, and DEA clearly, and plan to verify each at hire. This is general information, not legal advice.
What is the difference between a general surgeon and a specialty surgeon?
A general surgeon is trained to perform a broad range of procedures, most often abdominal and soft-tissue surgery, and handles common surgical conditions across the body. A specialty surgeon completes additional fellowship training to focus on one area, such as orthopedic surgery for the musculoskeletal system, plastic surgery for reconstructive and cosmetic work, or oral and maxillofacial surgery for the mouth, jaw, and face. The board certification, the procedures performed, and often the practice setting differ accordingly. For hiring, the practical point is to name the exact specialty and the matching board, since that defines both the candidate pool and the credentialing requirements. This is general information, not legal advice.
Do small practices and surgery centers hire surgeons directly?
Yes, and they are a large share of independent surgical hiring. Many surgeons work in physician-owned private practices and in practices with ten or fewer physicians, and surgical subspecialties are among the most independent, with a high share of orthopedic surgeons in private practice. Oral and maxillofacial surgery is dominated by one and two-surgeon practices, and most ambulatory surgery centers are physician-owned. At these small practices and centers, the owner or office manager writes the posting, screens candidates, verifies credentials, and onboards the new surgeon directly. The licensing, credentialing, and compliance obligations are the same as at a large hospital; they are just handled by fewer people. This is general information, not legal advice.
How long does it take to credential and onboard a new surgeon?
Plan for months, not weeks. Physician credentialing and payer enrollment commonly take 90 to 120 days, and some commercial payers run to 150 days, while Medicare enrollment through PECOS typically takes 60 to 90 days. A surgeon also needs facility privileges before performing cases, which has its own timeline. Because the surgeon usually cannot operate at a facility or bill payers until these are complete, the single most important step is to start credentialing and privileging the moment the offer is signed, not after the start date. Building the credentialing checklist and document collection into onboarding is what keeps the timeline from slipping. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does a surgeon make?
Surgeon pay is among the highest of all occupations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that physicians and surgeons have a median annual wage equal to or greater than 239,200 dollars as of May 2024, which is the top of the published range, and many surgical specialties earn well above it. Pay varies widely by specialty, region, and setting, and private-practice and production-based arrangements can differ substantially from a flat salary. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons, for example, have a mean annual wage above 340,000 dollars. For a posting, benchmark to the specific specialty and local market, and decide whether to offer salary, production-based pay, or a partnership track. This is general information, not compensation advice.
What insurance and agreements does hiring a surgeon involve?
Surgeon hiring is document-heavy beyond the clinical credentials. Plan for malpractice insurance, and decide early whether coverage is claims-made, which usually needs tail coverage when the surgeon leaves, or occurrence-based, since this affects the offer. Expect to collect a loss-run history of prior claims. The employment package commonly includes an employment agreement, compensation terms that may be salary or production-based, restrictive covenants such as non-compete clauses where enforceable, and sometimes a partnership or buy-in track. Because these documents are substantial and need signatures and secure storage, organizing them is most of the administrative work of a surgical hire, which is where a small practice without a recruiting team feels the load. This is general information, not legal advice.
What should a surgeon job description include?
Start with the specialty and setting: general, oral and maxillofacial, plastic, orthopedic, ambulatory surgery center, or private practice, since each shifts the framing. Include a short practice summary, a job summary naming the surgical focus, and responsibilities grouped into evaluation and consent, surgery and the operating room, pre-op and post-op care, and records and compliance. State the requirements clearly, especially the degree, residency, license, board status, and DEA. The most valuable additions that generic templates skip are the credentialing and privileging timeline, the malpractice and agreement paperwork, and the HIPAA and OSHA training that onboarding requires. Close with an equal opportunity statement and apply instructions. This is general information, not legal advice.
