"Of the approximately one million physicians in
our nation now practicing medicine, there
must be at least three of them that have been
wondering why they are losing their medical
practices for financial reasons, because in their
minds they cannot ferret out the real cause for
that to happen to them."
It's time to stand up against the tyranny of the medical education system. What gives them the right
to decide that the primary foundation of a medical career (the business of medical practice) doesn't deserve a lick of academic medical practice business education, attention, and teaching?
Is there any doubt in the minds of any physician anywhere in the world who has their own medical practice that the lack of education about running a medical practice business successfully, requires knowledge they have not been taught during their medical education?
Just the fact that the medical education system knows that they are now graduating large numbers
of qualified medical doctors who will fail in their practices because of having no business education, is not only neglectful, but also a malicious agenda composed of political, money, time, and
expense elements.
Many will defend that position as being an unaffordable addition to the medical curriculum,
when we all know that every medical school receives government money and support for
millions of dollars of research they do. My question is, are medical schools created to teach medicine, to do research, or both? Does the research money end up supporting the medical school teaching program, otherwise medical schools would likely go out of business?
My other concern is how the medical school system is able to rationalize pumping out medical doctors who they know full well that many will not do well in their medical practice business because of lack of business education. The unbelievable part of this is that they are at ease doing this at a time when physicians are overwhelmingly frustrated with medical practice and now are quitting in droves. All done at a time when the need for physicians is increasing exponentially.
Along this same line, wouldn't you think that it would be much more intelligent to admit
medical students who intend to practice full time instead of intermittently? That again brings
up the problem of women physicians in medicine.
Statistically, 50% of women physicians surveyed, practice part time. It may be a blessing to the managed care groups who employ most of them, but not to the smaller communities in need of physicians. Are those physician attrition rates quoted in medical practice surveys factored into the medical schools production rate of new physicians?
If one took the time to look at how each medical doctor after graduation chose to practice,
how long they lasted in private practice and what they did next, and look at the real reasons
65% of physicians admit being very frustrated with their profession, I think we would quickly
see that the number one cause is lack of practice income enough to stay in practice. And
what would be the cause of that?
If a physician can't afford to stay in private practice there must be a reason. Let's not blame it
on laziness, inertia, or lack of motivation. Very few physicians fit these categories. It's quite
obvious to me that a physician who has a bang-up medical education and has no business
knowledge, will never rise above a mediocre practice level by any standard of measurement.
Lack of business knowledge means they lack income. Lack of income means they are forced to quit practice and take on the role of a medical employee. But, what about those who go into another profession, job or business. Yes, it's another form of physician attrition.
When a physician has the appropriate business knowledge, they also have all the business and marketing tools to make the income they want and need. Others have no idea how to do all
that when they get in financial problems with their practices. Yet, any physician can resolve
that by obtaining the business knowledge and using it.
Criticizing without offering solutions is something I don't abide by. So here's my ideas about solving the problem of under-trained physicians.
I've written about these solutions previously in my ebook and articles, but newer ideas come
to mind. With almost certainty we know that there will not be one medical school take on the task of teaching medical students the essential elements of business to insure that physicians
leave the school prepared to run a business successfully. But, it's much more than just being able to create a successful medical practice.
This specific knowledge prepares physicians to reach their full potential in their career while
having the tools to defend themselves successfully from governmental intrusions
into healthcare.
The economic restrictions that are created against the practice of medicine, the
abuse of a legal system, which intentionally avoids enacting medical malpractice caps on pain and suffering, and the increasing toll on the lives and families of physicians are a few destructive factors all physicians and other healthcare providers face daily in order to serve the public
needs for healthcare and all it encompasses.
Why are these compromising issues not being addressed by those who have the power, influence, and status to resolve these issues? The same is true for dentists and other
professional health care providers.
These are my ideas about solutions to this perpetual stigma against
the medical profession:
1. Volunteers: Out of all the incredible depth of individuals with the ability and talents to
teach business principles and knowledge to medical students, why isn't there, among them,
those who volunteer their time, energy, and abilities to serve a greater need? It could be
another retired doctor, wealthy entrepreneur, professional business person, or a motivated
business school professor near the medical school who recognize the missing link and want
to do something about it.
An organized group of inspired volunteers could provide a persistent and consistent flow of
business education to medical students, even alumni doctors in practice. Perhaps this class
of volunteers isn't aware of the business knowledge deficiency among doctors, which would
be hard to believe. Maybe it just takes someone to ask them, make them aware of the seriousness
of the problem of physician attrition today and the causes, or tell them how they could help
with these tasks.
It's my impression that people have to know that a problem exists and the consequences of
the problem before they think about volunteering for anything.
2. Donors: When it comes to the issue of money and supporting funds necessary to pay for
the teaching of business to medical students, this perpetuating need falls to a low priority position for reasons of... what good would it do? Priorities usually are to build new school buildings, do more clinical research, and keep up with the other schools in competition for government funding.
Everyone knows nothing can be done without money. Even single donors, donate millions of dollars to medical schools for all sorts of purposes. It seems that finding donors who recognize the incredible medical career business compromising issues, isn't possible. I propose that informational campaigns could be run to let potential donors know about these circumstances. Retired doctors, who financially are secure, would be the ideal candidate and donor because they have experienced the problems they have had in their practices.
It is quite reasonable that donors could be found to financially support a structure for teaching medical students about business and running a medical practice business if donors understood the need and importance of this educational deficiency. It just takes a motivated individual to
get the ball rolling.
3. Time availability issue: I'm sick and tired of hearing that there is no time left in the
medical school curriculum to teach medical students business strategies, not even the basics. There's always time available for important issues. A 174 accredited medical schools in the United States don't consider business education of medical students important enough, and don't have the funds to pay for such education... so they claim.
We are told, correctly, that medical schools have such an overwhelming amount of medical knowledge to teach medical students today that they can't even find time to teach it all to them... and never will. How does one squeeze into the curriculum an education about small business under these conditions? Good question. Let me respond.
First, when all the apples won't fit into the basket, what do you do? You either sort out the bruised apples to make room for the perfect ones or you place the remaining apples in another container... right? Maybe, medical students are learning far to much medical information, which they will never ever use in their medical practice. Cutting out the "good to know but will never use" stuff, would then allow time to learn about medical practice business management. This idea brings up several unsettling factors to consider.
Most important to my mind is how would all that be accomplished.
- Need to prepare students to make a definite medical career choice early.
- Students would then follow a curriculum specific to that career choice.
- Any medical knowledge that was not pertinent to the career choice
is removed.
- Add another year to the medical schools curriculum or admit them
after 3 college years... maybe. (My choice would be the latter)
Second, going to the next alternative for making the time to teach business to students and
not disrupting the curriculum profile already established, would be to create a separate curriculum
for students to learn about business management and systems. A separate set of lectures would not be difficult to construct. The lectures would be scheduled at times outside the standard curriculum for medical students who were available at the time.
Attendance could be made mandatory or voluntary (best if it was voluntary). The series of live business lectures would be continuously recycled so that if a student missed one, he or she
could pick it up in the next round. Even better, the live lectures could easily be video
recorded on DVDs, and made available to students to view and review on their own time. Live
lectures have several advantages such as a Q and A session, additional tips not mentioned on
a DVD, and private questions asked of the speaker.
Surrounding most of the medical schools are usually business schools in the same complex. Perhaps the advanced business students would volunteer to give business education lectures
for extra training, for credits, for personal satisfaction of filling a need. Also, they might create the business lecture series on DVDs as well under the supervision of instructors.
As is often the case, students who attend a lecture or course voluntarily that they consider important creates a competitive atmosphere among the other students. Other students believe the students who attend a medical school supported lecture voluntarily leaves them behind,
and are then mentally coerced into attending also.
These live business lectures could be arranged in early evenings, noon hours, or early
mornings before the medical duties are begun... even on weekends.
4. Attendance: Presently, medical schools do not indicate to medical students that any
medical practice business knowledge about how to handle a medical practice management is needed, if it's even mentioned at all.
It leaves the students with the idea that they will never need knowledge about running a business... and like a dream, it all will go well in their practice. If you are one who believes that the overwhelming frustration of doctors in practice today is not at all related to their financial (practice income) problems, you haven't been in private medical practice or are financially independent.
Therefore, it would be important to let the medical students know how important it is to have
medical practice business information and knowledge, since the medical school and instructors
do not.
A good example of the importance of business education can be made in the case of a
graduating medical student with an average of $165,000 educational debt. For young doctors starting private medical practice, paying for the practice expenses as well as the educational debt, may shock them into the awareness and need for a business system.
Even then, they can obtain the business knowledge, but not anywhere as simple as it was
while in medical school. That's where it should have been grabbed and should be taught.
Result... graduating physicians are half educated for their career in medical practice. They
don't know what they don't know. It's possible they don't want to know. Any level headed
and intelligent physician must understand that they could do lots more in their medical
practice career with a foundational business management knowledge.
Comment...
My belief is, like the issue of "too big to fail", that the medical profession is going through a major transformation as a direct consequence of lack of a strong business education for all physicians. It has been neglected too long and the need for business knowledge has become embedded too deeply into physicians minds that they don't need it, to allow any recovery of the profession back to any resemblance of the way it used to be.
It doesn't mean that the medical profession will disappear, only that non-physicians will carry the
load of healthcare. I think physicians will drift slowly into social and medical obscurity, but
those who remain will still do the hard stuff in medical care from their primarily administrative positions. Yes, the quality and quantity of medical care will decrease.
Patients will be demanding more from the healthcare providers and not getting it, which is the perfect situation for increased medical malpractice litigation.
The one bright side seems to be the entrepreneurial attitudes of physicians. Creativeness, desire
to make things better, and the personal need to help all mankind continue to lead to
solutions in healthcare that haven't even been thought of yet. When the present surge of
interest in concierge medical practice runs its course, what's next?
The gauntlet of medical practice must include business trained physicians and health care
providers who are in private practice. The exception that seems obvious to me is that at any place
in time there are those physicians who leave the managed care systems for private
practice, and even they are not off the hook for small business education.
----Professional Probe----
"Knowing what I have written here today, wouldn't
you think that the medical education scholars would
be leaping over fences in a fury to add a business education
curriculum to every medical school in our nation, just to
shut my mouth up about this extreme example of how
pathetic their efforts are to relieve the egregious
and increasing abuses being poured on private medical
practice physicians, when they are actually the real source of many problems today in healthcare and the medical profession."
Articles©2013-2022/CGG INVESTMENTS LLC. All rights reserved. #152, 3-16-22
