This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com.
After several months of intense discussions, “Dr. Joe Smith” thought he was headed from his successful two-physician practice to a respected practice with many more physicians. It was pretty much a “done deal,” until he was told that the senior partner decided he really didn’t want someone with an …
How physicians can investigate their employers
Medicine is currently struggling with the problem of physician burnout and the specter of diminishing wellness. Despite concerted efforts, burnout continues to expand. In light of this, being vigilant for limitations in the current framing of the issue is prudent.
Words express the conceptualizations of our world and frame ideas. Such framing is meant to be revealing. However, frames and the words that construct them may also be constraining. One approach …
What common words and phrases really say about medicine
As each calendar year closes, organizations compile best/worst lists: TV shows, movies, exceptional people that bring character or immortality to our year as it fades into history.
Medicine has its heroes and scoundrels. I would expect that all physicians can instantly name five teachers who shaped them and five guys they scored as real zeros on their evaluation forms. For the benefactors, we not only gave them higher scores but assimilated …
Being on the lists of the best and worst doctors
In the last decade, specifically in the last five to six years, we have seen the gradual disempowerment of America’s physicians as well as their unfortunate patients.
Starting with health management organizations, managed care, all the way to the insurance exchange, doctoring has been forcefully wrestled away from physicians only to be placed into the hands of large insurers, administrators and the United States government.
The common denominator was never about improving …
The old days of medicine are gone
Physician well-being, burnout, and “work-life balance” are pretty common topics in training. We start at intern orientation, discussing how to work 80 hours a week, eat, sleep, exercise, and still have some semblance of social life. It’s like we’ve forgotten the origins of our job title: “resident” or “house staff” — implying that, until recently (and even now, in places outside of North America), we, the physicians-in-training, lived at the hospital. …
The fallacy of work-life balance in medicine
Too many doctors today believe that their income is what determines their level of success. This is a fallacy that is hurting way too many doctors. We hear things like, “Become a specialist so you can make the big bucks,” or “Now that I’m an attending, I can afford the payments on a new Tesla,” or “I’ve lived in an apartment too long, now is the time to get my …
Physician income shouldn’t be what determines your level of success
A retirement plan isn’t usually a top priority for fresh doctors looking for their first jobs, whether that final date is in five years or thirty. Perhaps knowing when to hang up your hat is immaterial so early in your career since most doctors will end up leaving their first job within the first five years anyway. However, I do wish that I had some inkling about the career paths …
How physicians can successfully wind down their practice
This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com.
It’s no secret that some businesses are family businesses and medicine is no exception. The anonymous Northern California cardiologist known as “Dads Dollars Debts” confesses in a blog that, yes, some days he feels like he’s made a difference, and other days, “I just feel like a customer service rep at …
When medicine stays in the family
Rock-paper-scissors is a game that nearly all of us played as children.
It is a game with incredible opportunities to play mind games with your opponent.
There is no luck in rock-paper-scissors as with card games.
The game does not have complex rules like chess.
You simply have to figure out the patterns of your opponent (or induce patterns into them) and take advantage accordingly.
Can you beat the New York Times computer bot?
Back in …
Investing in the stock market is like playing that game of rock-paper-scissors
Women physicians are disheartened when they discover the financial implications of having children. Most of us will not get paid leave. Many of us are the breadwinning partner. And most of us will not become stay at home moms so we will need to pay for high-quality childcare or have a stay at home spouse.
Certain things should be in place prior to becoming pregnant. So even if you’re single, I …
A financial checklist for the pregnant woman physician
If you’ve done any research into real estate investing, you’ve likely heard the term “turnkey real estate.” Businesses calling themselves “turnkey companies” claim to take care of all the hard parts of real estate investing – helping you with all aspects of purchasing and managing a rental property – leaving you to sit back and collect passive income.
That sounds great, but surely there’s a catch, right? Well, …
What physicians should know about turnkey real estate
There is no doubt about it, I am my mother’s son. What would you expect? My father died when I was eight years old. During my formative years, I was brought up solely by my mother. I believe this is a unique lens in which to see both life and financial independence. As the years pass, I feel lucky. The importance of female role models cannot be …
The importance of female role models
I have had several dealings with the benefits managers/HR managers of large corporations and other large organizations over my career. I have one over-arching conclusion about what motivates these people: They will never be a source of disruptive innovation in health care.
I find them to be passive people. They are fundamentally people pleasers. They derive joy from helping their employees navigate their insurance plans, figure out deductibles and co-pays, explain …
Why managers will never be a source of disruptive innovation in health care
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So many people are suggesting that if only doctors practice self-care we could deflect burnout before it overtakes us. Yes, physicians are probably the worst professionals for taking care of ourselves. We work long hours, answer calls at all hours of the night, take little vacation, work in stressful situations, and often face hostility in the workplace. But this is not the reason we are burning out at high rates; …
Solving physician burnout requires so much more than self-care
The term “physician compensation” could be among the top phrases in health care this year.
Though it’s always been a hot topic, it got hotter when the Trump administration announced a proposal that would affect nearly 40 percent of Medicare payments. That plan would replace a fee scale that compensated doctors more for seeing sicker patients with …
5 anomalies about compensation physicians should know about
This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com.
To err is human, and in the health care arena, avoiding errors is crucial. Efforts to address communication-related or “soft skill” failures have been ongoing since about 20 years ago when the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published reports titled To Err Is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm. When we rely on …
3 surprising links to medical errors
Asset protection is a term that gets tossed around quite a bit when we discuss how long and difficult the journey is for doctors to establish their careers. You always want to protect what you’ve worked hard for, right? The principles for asset protection apply not only to doctors but essentially anyone who wishes to have some sort of security for their assets. The key is to make sure you don’t over …
What physicians should know about umbrella insurance
Career burnout is becoming increasingly common and is a hot topic lately, particularly for physicians and other health care workers.
The causes are many. Increased demands. Decreased reimbursement and recognition. Longer hours and lower benefits. The feeling that you’re just another wheel in the cog.
In medicine, it’s the ever-thickening red tape. Clumsy electronic health records (EHRs). Prior authorizations. In-baskets that fill up with dozens or hundreds of messages any time you’re …
Personal finance strategies to combat physician burnout
Physicians receive rigorous medical training for the better part of a decade. However, we emerge unprepared for the real-world job application process to which our friends in other professions are accustomed. One of these logistics includes credentialing and verification for hospitals and clinics where your group intends to practice — a process that can take up to three months.
There are a number of items that are requested during the credentialing …
12 things you’ll need for a smooth credentialing process
A few years ago, after doing the work and mom thing for five-plus years, I noticed I was becoming increasingly cynical. I was, more often than not, in a bad mood — and I felt exhausted. One day I sat down and asked myself: “What the hell is going on with you?” I realized that I was working all day, only to come home (when I wasn’t working nights) to …
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