Physicians writing on KevinMD about running a practice: staffing and overhead, the payer paperwork that arrives with every patient, ownership and consolidation, the administrators and executives who now employ most physicians, and the models physicians have built to get out from under all of it. Four maintained records draw on this archive: Primary care: what physicians say, in their own words, Direct primary care: what physicians say, in their own words, Physicians and administrators: what physicians say about who runs medicine, in their own words, and Private equity and corporate medicine: what physicians say, in their own words.
Marie Kondo, the best-selling guru of organization and “sparking joy” has established the foundation of getting a space organized and functional. Her do-it-all-once method, known as the KonMari Method, is considered healthy and life-altering for those seeking organization and productivity in their space. One of the ideal places to organize is the home office especially for doctors, nurses and medical professionals who have reading, studying and research to do. You …
Read more…
How physicians can use Marie Kondo’s KonMari Method
This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com.
Academic and education environments tend to use the word curriculum vitae, or CV, more frequently than resume. But, a CV’s purpose is the same: to get you a job.
Although a CV generally contains more information than a standard resume, the keys to a successful CV are still brevity and …
Read more…
How to write a physician CV
My friend, Lello Tesema, and I were sitting in a restaurant in Harvard Square. It was the first, feverish bit of spring when it seems like the entire city has emerged en masse from their winter dens. We were sitting outside under patio lights, wearing regular clothes instead of our usual scrubs. I should have been happy.
As often happened in those days, I asked Lello if things were ever going …
Read more…
How to talk with a struggling physician colleague
Medical practice in England in the 1500s was poorly regulated, and there was no way to distinguish between various medical practitioners. A small group of distinguished physicians petitioned King Henry VIII to form a College to grant licenses to those qualified to practice medicine and to penalize charlatans. King Henry VIII thus granted a royal charter to establish the Royal College of Physicians, London, in 1518, which was extended to …
Read more…
“P” stands for physician
One of the great teaching experiences in a young medical student or resident’s life is to be placed in front of his or her peers with an attending physician quizzing him or her on the spot about a particular patient.
Often, when radiology imaging is involved, the said victim will be asked to interpret the study and point out any salient features.
I have been subject to this numerous times in my …
Read more…
How a radiology trick can surprisingly help your finances
“Didn’t you just have a baby? When are you going to stop?”
Those words weren’t directed to me but to a colleague by a patient’s parent who was frustrated that they wouldn’t be able to see her for follow-up. Yet, they could have easily been uttered by another physician in our group discussing coverage during her planned maternity leave. These are words as a male physician I will never be forced …
Read more…
Male physicians don’t have to choose between family or career
In an ideal world, we should all be compensated fairly for our services and skills. The reality, as we all experience, is an amalgam of mistakes and victories. One hopes that with time our skills will translate to a greater number of victories. Most greenhorns entering the workforce are unfortunately poorly equipped to assess their worth. I certainly was.
Greenhorn doctors stand to lose a financial lot from mistakes simply because …
Read more…
Negotiation tips for new doctors
John and I met as young children and were high-school sweethearts. We married and put him through college and had four children during the process. He joined the Air Force to pay for medical school, and we spent four years overseas to help pay off the costs of his education.
We recently counted how many years of his life were spent being educated. If you go back to the beginning and …
Read more…
Before you vent about your doctor on social media, read this
“Welcome to our clinic. May we take your order?”
Many patients have Googled, Yahoo’ed or Bing’ed their symptoms way before I even lay eyes on them in an examining room. And they have a schema of what they’ll be getting out of the visit.
If the encounter takes a detour — the diagnosis is not in line with what they believe they have, or they are about to stroke out from unmanaged …
Read more…
How customer service breeds bad medicine
I think one of the biggest frustrations I have as a doctor is being at the mercy of people who either have no medical training or are so detached from medicine that they have lost touch with those on the front line.
The American Board of Radiology (ABR) essentially governs over radiologists who typically need the important board-certified designation to find a place of employment.
I have always played by the rules …
Read more…
MOC: When you play the game and they change the rules
Many times during difficult patient interactions — when I am not sure about the right thing to do — I let myself be guided by the question: “What would I do if it was my family member?” This internal dialogue usually cuts the clutter and lets me focus on the most important thing: the well-being of my patient. I can step away from the behavioral chaos and guide them in …
Read more…
Treat your family like you treat your patients
I posted on social media that in 2019, I would compete in Ironman. I wanted to hold myself accountable and was announcing “I could do this.” My primary reason, so I thought, was that “I wanted to grow mentally and physically.”
Since then, I have been training six hours per week on top of my usual daily routine. I have been mentally and physically challenged in ways I didn’t think possible. …
Read more…
This physician chose not to do a triathlon. Here’s why.
You wouldn’t have known it by looking, but Viktor had once been on several modestly successful television shows. He lived for acting. It brought him joy and purpose. So much so that it was the first thing he mentioned to any who happen to pass through his single room next to the nursing station. Viktor was almost famous, definitely broke. His little space in the nursing home …
Read more…
This patient’s regrets were much deeper than money
Retiring early as a doctor is surprisingly difficult given the typical doctor income. There are four main reasons for this – the heavy debt load to enter the career, the very late start to earning a significant salary (most physicians leave residency at an age older than some FIRE bloggers retire at), the temptation of a high income, and the “doctor factor” I’ll get into later. Despite those challenges, it …
Read more…
How physicians can retire early: 7 steps to follow
It seems like natural human tendency to explain ourselves. When we are late to a meeting, we come up with an excuse in case anyone asks. When our kid starts throwing a temper tantrum at the store, people stare at us expecting an apology. In the same way, when we decide that there are things outside of medicine that are more important to us than the job – an explanation …
Read more…
It’s OK to care more about things outside of medicine
As a woman in medicine, where the odds for pay, promotion, and leadership are stacked against me, I feel obligated to light the path for younger women who come behind me. It has taken me a while to be comfortable with my style of leadership, own my own voice, be able to regroup after rejection, and tolerate feeling on display and yet often invisible.
I wish someone would have told me the following …
Read more…
5 powerful tips for women in medicine
Two device salesmen recently came unannounced to our small private gastroenterology practice. They were hawking a product that could quickly and non-invasively determine how much scar tissue had formed in a patient’s liver, a useful tool for assessing patients with hepatitis and many other liver conditions.
We are physicians, not entrepreneurs. We do not regard the colonoscope as a capitalist tool. Yet, these two salesmen were barraging us with facts and …
Read more…
How should salespeople sell to doctors?
It’s easy to judge when you don’t experience the same difficulties that others do. The classic scenario in medicine is an internist, who runs marathons and bikes to work, tells his morbidly obese patient to lose weight. How would the scenario work if the doctor were mildly overweight, or has a body mass index of 30.5?
The same judgment is frequently seen in the online financial blogosphere. Why does a doctor …
Read more…
Your financial mindset is a baseline for financial success
