"Because physicians are very unique professionals in
our world who are universally accepted as experts in
the practice and knowledge of medicine dating back
in history to Hippocrates, we are also expected to
maintain our skills, competence, and knowledge
throughout our medical practice careers. To measure
up to that standard, requires us to become educated in
business, which enables us to use the business tools to
earn the level of income necessary to easily comply with
the standards expected of us throughout our medical
practice careers and which has been the tragic deficit in
medical school education shadowing our careers for
a century and continues today, unchanged."
Any physician who has dedicated so many years of their lives to obtain a medical education,
without even mentioning the cost of it all, would never permit their primary medical practice business to destroy all that bloody effort and cost.
Yes, you can make a very high income in private practice by simply working long hours, tolerating increasing frustration, recruiting loads of new patients, and at the same time neglecting your family obligations and planned for lifestyle. Doesn't the thought of such a situation make you stop and think? There is another way to accomplish that without practicing medicine the hard way like we
all have been doing over the past century.
Essentially none of all the physicians in the last century that graduated from medical school was ever taught about medial practice management or practice marketing (business education). So, who's responsible for that handicap all physicians have today?
All that does is lead to practice and physician burnout, stagnation, and eventual drop of income to an unacceptable poverty level. It truly also takes the joy out of practicing when you are pushing huge numbers of patients through your office daily just to stay even financially, let alone increasing you bank account. If you don't believe it, look around at the doctors who are doing this, talk to them, find out why they are doing it--money? compulsion? mindset?
All successful businesses require better than average management. You can earn high income for a short while, but you learn to keep it, use it, and perpetuate it only by having a sound business knowledge which includes the part of business knowledge we call... Marketing.
If you start a medical practice with the right business foundation, you automatically have a small
business going. When you intentionally start a medical practice, you have an obligation to yourself to do everything necessary to make the business side of practice function efficiently and profitably... am I wrong?
After all, this medical practice business becomes your livelihood, the source of all your income, the goal you have worked for over a decade to achieve, and the most important asset that allows you freedom to enjoy your life.
So, why do what over 95% of medical doctors neglect to do and all they should do to polish that business machine to perfection? I know, they're excuse is, too busy curing patients and enjoying the freedom to do so... to learn how to make medical practice management investment grade and your practice marketing and business efforts focused on maximum productivity.
Maybe, these doctors really don't give a damn anymore about their medical practice business career goals or the income they earn. And perhaps they have mentally revolted against anyone telling them what to think or do... let no one cross the red line... "Oh no, not another education course to learn--I thought we were done with the educational thing!"
I believe the cause of that attitude is "passion burnout" more than anything else. That passion to
achieve has been burning in your mind for so many years, you have no energy left for perpetuating it any further. That usually happens once your medical education and training has been completed. It's just a relief to be able to call yourself a "physician."
I say "physician," rather than use the word "doctor" because the word doctor now is interpreted to be multiple things... like the "engine doctor" or the dentist, or the PhD, or the "healthcare provider"--all of which downgrades our professional status. The one word that can't be manipulated in a person's mind is "physician." It stands for a unique person in our nation and the world that deserves the respect you have earned and the status you delight in.
You can't stop to lick your wounds, the battle isn't over. The same thing happens often in life when you think about it. You wait a period of time to buy a special item or do a special thing and finally do it. You lug it home, unwrap it, try it out to see how it runs, use it once or twice, and then put it away in the closet and forget about it. You're on to the next new passion. Without passion for medical practice, how far can we go on the path to our expectations for our careers?
Isn't there something inside yourself telling you that you have a mountain of new stuff to do and
you're just getting started? Maybe you do, but you're thinking maybe about procrastinating a bit
on that effort? Then it never gets done.
The best time to polish your well oiled money making business machine is when you start your private medical practice and have the time to establish a business system for your practice. You'll
be too busy to do anything like that later on. For most physicians, it's already well beyond
that checkpoint.
You see, the same stuff happened to me in my practice. Maintaining your passion to make your medical practice top notch is a lot more involved than seeing patients. You create that passion by establishing new goals--ones that you likely can reach. Although you hate to do medical practice management of your office, it has to be done somehow. You need to educate yourself about medical practice business planning, profitably, and productively. Medical schools don't teach that and probably never will.
You certainly can learn all the basics of business and marketing necessary, by reading all my articles on this website, including the books I recommend you read when you are able to focus
on the context.
"It's not enough that we do our best;
sometimes we have to do what's required."
---Winston Churchill
Common understanding tells you that no one is forcing you to learn about medical practice management or medical practice business marketing well enough to bypass your competition, to reach your maximum potential as a physician, or to make yourself wealthy, but it has it's advantages that nothing else can provide. The purpose of all business is to make money--PERIOD. What is done with the money is another issue.
No one else really cares whether you succeed or not, except for your immediate family who
depend on you for average cultural survival. After medical school no one is patting you on the back for working hard, doing a good job, or being a great doctor.
And yet our medical schools continue to expect us physicians to regularly donate back to the medical schools forever, especially when they offer very little support to us once we graduate.
How much support value do you get from a monthly Alumni magazine that is jammed with the progress and accomplishments of only those who are working in and on-staff at the medical
school business system?
----Professional Probe----
"Are you telling me... ?"
"Are you telling me that there aren't more than
one or two from your medical school class over
the last 50 years that are out in regular medical
practice doing fantastic jobs that never met
the criteria for at least one write-up in the
medical school alumni magazine? Seems like it to me."
After 40 or so years of medical practice, there are no parades for you, no standing ovations, no mention in your medical school alumni news except for your obituary, and no one asking you how your practice years went. You get all that stuff from inside, your confidence in yourself, your self-esteem, your patient's feedback, and your personal belief that you are doing a fantastic job despite what others think and can't actually do themselves.
If you need/desire accolades and recognition, you need an academic medical practice in a big university medical school and hospital where medical research, high status, and your publications worldwide can do that for you.
At the end of the day, your satisfaction can only be fulfilled when you have proven to yourself who
you are. Thomas Edison puts it in a few words..
"If we did all the things in life we are capable of doing,
we would literally astound ourselves."
---Thomas Edison
----Professional Probe----
"If it isn't an academic business education
that I'm looking at, then how do you expect
to control my life in medical practice?"
Articles©2013-2022/CGG INVESTMENTS LLC. All rights reserved. #136, 3-16-22
