I just got tagged for 4000.00 malpractice insurance payment and a 700.00 license renewal. I spent 2-3 hours on a "mandatory" online education that was supposed to take a few minutes. Multiple meetings to make sure all doctors are "on the same page"- making diagnosis and treatment plans universal. Yet my malpractice climbs every year (even though in 20 years I have never been sued); reimbursement falls every year; my paycheck is the same as a 27 yearold just getting out of residency training (since the Kelly Blue Book says all family practice doctors should be practicing and making about the same all over the US).
Most of the doctors I know went straight from college to medical school to residency (a few of us to fellowship and a handful to a second fellowship). Suffice it to say, most of my colleagues have not been trained in business so running an office is a tough learning curve we don't have time to do the correct way - going back to school. This is why many choose to be an "employee" of a large corporation so you can practice with "autonomy" and leave the business to the hospital administrators. But your med school guru didn't teach you that if your practice is run by a non medical human, compassion and time are not in the formula for turning a profit. If a director has to answer to a board, he won't be saying "our doctors are very loved by the community, one of our physicians gave a great lecture at a local high school, we had a doc interviewed on television". The director report is real time paper/graph generated results with prospective graphs for the future and comparison statistics to local competition. I will never forget working for a Hospital in the Center of Dupage, the immediate care centers in the 90's closed doors at 9-10oclock to save on electricity and payroll. All the centers except one; this Convenient Care just happened to be in the neighborhood of several board members in Wheaton!!! (the rumor was it was closer to the Wheaton-ites than going to the hospital so they were advised to stay open later) Alot of hospital high ranking administrators will want their employees to streamline, follow protocol, not give away anything but yet whenever I hear a COO/CFO is bringing his kid in or a board member wants to be in and out quick....it sounds like the people that make the rules of how doctors are supposed to heal, follow a different set of rules.
If you look at how much sacrifice was spent in school, how little reimbursement is given for invested problem solving, how much time is lost away from children and spouses/ waking up answering phone calls in the middle of the night and seeing sick people in the hospital.....and compare to a business major finishing college, starting a company, hiring employees (doctors) and starting another business-it doesn't compare. It used to be an honorable and guaranteed business in the 70's and 80's ....but not now, in fact the stressors of being brought up to "do great things" but then being told that you are "standard and should be practicing in the mean average of doctors" is so heart breaking.
This is where the schizophrenia of medicine exists. We are groomed to heal others, give back to the community, continue learning since it will help humanity.....but at the same time, don't used intuition, don't listen to your heart, follow protocol make sure you don't deviate from policy. Isn't healing a dynamic thing that varies from person to person, from country to country, from harvest to harvest?
The Saguil Approach is to take a regular paying job (so the kids can get a great education and walk home safe). At the same time-Sow my Healer oats-take a chance with practicing medicine from the heart, outside the wallstreet paradigm without worrying about following hospital protocol, government restrictions and getting reimbursed for healing lives and not just making pharmaceutical industry wealthier. I joined several groups to increase chances for 40 hours a week of steady income, I also have a twice a week consulting service where I practice "no holds barred" medicine (weaving between western and alternative medicine, educating and empowering, making suggestions for relaxation practice, hand picking herbal supplements and embracing physical changes to help immunity/recovery.)
This is my duality = DrRicOnDemand-using modern technology to administer old fashioned healing.
