Timeline of an Associate contract
I'm a new fellowship grad, new associate in a surgical specialty that heavily relies on lasers and imaging technologies in the office. It's not the most desirable city, but my wife's family is from here and we want to make this work. I joined a 3-doctor private practice, 1 of whom I knew was going to retire and who I'll replace. Another one seems to one foot out the door more than I realized, and the last one is still mid-career but might think about slowing down soon.
The issue is that I'm the first person they've hired in 20 years. All of the lasers and imaging machines are way out of date, some even older than me. They don't have a imaging machine that is considered the gold standard for our specialty. At our satellite office, the machine software can't even be serviced anymore, so if it goes down we're screwed. Before I signed, they did say they were looking into buying one of the machines but never did. One of these machines would cost ~100k+ so I understand there's a financial side to running a business, but they have not stayed up to date for the last decade+.
The clinic manager has brought up these concerns before with the docs who have always brushed it off. Not to mention staffing issues, refusing to hire qualified people with certificates and instead hiring young grads with no experience leading to high turnover rates
At what point of my 2-year associate contract should I bring up my concerns? I was thinking ASAP to see how they respond, and to give them time to actually pull the trigger. But I'm not sure how much I can push as an associate. I'm definitely their retirement plan as it would be hard to recruit to this area, so they have a big reason to keep me around and keep me happy.
Any advice would be appreciated