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Pediatrician and certified coach Jessie Mahoney discusses her article “Dealing with physician negative feedback.” Jessie validates the pain that comes with criticism, noting that it hurts not because physicians are weak, but …
Criticism stings because doctors care deeply about their work [PODCAST]
One of the true joys of leadership lies in building and leading an effective team. The sense of a shared vision and of all parts of the team striving in a coordinated fashion toward it is exhilarating. In contrast, we have all experienced what it is like when a team is struggling, with no common vision or shared effort. You might be wondering, “What is it that separates effective teams …
The secret sauce of leadership trust in health care teams
It keeps us up at night. We pay thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to protect ourselves from it. Our hospitals or practices have entire departments dedicated to managing it.
It is “Risk.”
Avoiding risk is an inherent part of modern medicine. Every day, we practice CYA documentation, ensure our patients sign informed consent forms, and do everything we can to minimize the risk that someone will sue us …
Physician financial risk: Balancing capacity and tolerance
Every spring, millions of families across Chinese communities around the world travel back to their hometowns for Qingming Festival, often translated as “Tomb-Sweeping Day.” It is a centuries-old tradition of honoring ancestors. Highways fill with traffic. Families gather at gravesites to clean tombstones, burn incense, and leave offerings of food. On the surface, Qingming is about remembering the dead. But in many homes, the holiday quietly exposes a different reality: …
The hidden cost of long-term care policy for family caregivers
Update from Oregon Health & Science University:
Oregon Health & Science University clarifies that no decisions have been made about the Oregon National Primate Center at OHSU.
In February, the OHSU Board of Directors authorized the university president to enter discussions with the National Institutes of Health about the possibility of transitioning the ONPRC to a primate sanctuary.
The board passed a resolution to begin a six-month timeframe for the parties to develop …
Why the Oregon National Primate Research Center is shutting down
Most physicians know what they earn. Far fewer know what it costs to hire them or replace them. A colleague once told me in frustration, “It takes me two years to get my money back on a new hire.” I understood the frustration, but not the math. I thought of hiring the way many physicians do: salary, benefits, maybe a signing bonus. It seemed straightforward. It is not. Hiring a …
The hidden math behind physician hiring costs and recruitment
I just signed my first attending contract.
It should feel like pure celebration. Mostly, it does. But it is also a moment that forces reflection. For first-generation physicians, the hardest part of the journey often is not medical school or residency. It is learning how to navigate what comes after, inside systems we were never born into.
You are just as capable, compassionate, and prepared as anyone else. You have worked harder …
First-generation physician: Navigating the first attending contract
For many years the health care industry has operated under the “prestige” hiring model. We have been led to believe that to solve the crisis of patient safety and quality, we basically need more of the “top-tier” talent and specialists for MDs, more PhD-level nurses, and highly credentialed execs.
But we are now in the first quarter of 2026 and the data tells a different story. In spite of record spending …
The health care credentialing gap: Why top-down hiring fails
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Intensivist Cristin Mount and business operations lead Steve Lettrich from All Levels Leadership discuss their article “A 6-step framework for new health care leaders.” The authors address the common challenge where clinicians …
How to master a new health care leadership role [PODCAST]
The way hospitals traditionally staff is burning out nurses and killing patients.
A single call-in or unanticipated census spike creates heavier patient loads for front-line nurses. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that surgical patients have a 31 percent increased likelihood of death within 30 days in hospitals with 8:1 nurse-to-patient ratios, compared to those with the optimal 4:1 ratio.
Further, when nurses were asked why …
Predictive staffing in health care: Solving the nurse burnout crisis
In 2025, the health care industry faced a crisis that has quietly reshaped how providers think about care: administrative workforce shortages. Clinics struggled to fill roles like medical billers, schedulers, and revenue cycle specialists, with vacancies lasting over 30 days in many cases.
The impact was tangible:
The real differentiator for high-performing practices was a surprisingly human …
Administrative workforce stability: the new clinical metric for 2026
There are moments when professional boundaries collapse under the weight of something more fundamental: our shared humanity.
You do not have to be a physician to recognize when a system has failed at its most basic level. You only have to be human.
What happened to Alex Pretti is not solely a tragedy confined to one profession, one agency, or one moment. It is a systemic rupture, one that exposes a dangerous …
Systemic failure in professional environments: the myth of protection
Imagine a world-class anesthesiologist at a major hospital in Manhattan. She is fully credentialed, board-certified, and has been saving lives at that facility for 5 years. On her day off, she wants to pick up an extra shift at a surgery center 3 blocks away that is currently short-staffed and desperate for help. Logic says she should be able to walk in, show her “Ready-to-Work” status, and start. Instead, she …
Health care credentialing is broken: How to fix the staffing crisis
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Internal medicine physician Corinne Sundar Rao discusses her article “Physician on-call compensation: the unpaid labor driving burnout.” Corinne argues that the term “call” is a euphemism used to extract free labor from …
Unpaid on-call shifts are driving doctors into early retirement [PODCAST]
If you are frustrated by your high tax bill, you are not alone. I have spoken with many doctors who experience sticker shock when they see their total annual tax liability after completing residency. Stories in the media, such as The Atlantic’s recent study on billionaire taxes, about how rich people avoid taxes only fan the flames. It is no surprise, then, that one of the most common financial …
Physician tax strategies: Why your tax bill is so high and how to fix it
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Practicing anesthesiologist and the physician co-founder of Marit Health Rob Anderson discusses his article “Why can’t finding a doctor job be like Zillow.” Rob shares his personal journey through divorce and house …
Modern technology must revolutionize the archaic physician job search [PODCAST]
I was halfway through reviewing what looked like an excellent locums opportunity when I realized the hourly rate was the least important number in the agreement. The compensation was strong. The schedule was flexible. Travel was covered. On the surface, it seemed straightforward.
But what ultimately determined whether the opportunity made sense had very little to do with pay. It had to do with clarity.
The difference between conversations and contracts
Locums conversations …
Reviewing locum tenens agreements: Look beyond the hourly rate
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Pediatrician Trevor Cabrera discusses his article “Locum tenens: Reclaiming purpose, autonomy, and financial freedom in medicine.” Trevor explains how choosing the path of an independent contractor allowed him to pay off massive …
Locum tenens offers physicians a path to freedom [PODCAST]
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Nationally recognized psychiatrist, internist, and addiction medicine specialist Muhamad Aly Rifai discusses his article “Why CPT coding ambiguity harms doctors.” Muhamad analyzes the landmark case of United States v. Ron Elfenbein, where …
Ambiguous billing rules threaten every doctor in practice [PODCAST]
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Palliative care physician and certified physician development coach Christie Mulholland discusses her article “Why every physician needs a sabbatical (and how to take one).” Christie reveals the harsh reality that while sabbaticals …
Sabbaticals provide a critical lifeline for sustainable medical careers [PODCAST]
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