Doctors were never intended

to be businesspeople.

     Doctors teach  us every day how NOT to run a business. They are over-stressed, under-nourished, over their heads financially, and under the radar of best business practices. Sure there are exceptions. There are exceptions in every field of endeavor.

     But after 25 years  of working as a practice development business consultant and a personal and professional growth and development counselor to physicians and healthcare executives, I know whereof I speak.

     More than half  of the thousand-plus doctors I have known and worked with never wanted to be doctors in the first place. Many were pushed into it by well-intentioned parents who saw only the media-glorified healer earning big bucks… parents who pulled their buggy whips out of storage.

     I don’t know any longer,  but only a few short years ago, the average doctor only lived to be 58 years old. The stress of the work is literally inhuman. Medical schools and training, like military boot camps, breed and cultivate stress. Some good reasons, but mostly not.

     Ridiculous nonstop work shifts  that can only be maintained with easy-access sugar snacks and self-prescribed amphetamines carry over into reality as doctors face the need to juggle (and drum up) patients and referrals, manage staffs and offices or facilities, run businesses, comply with insurance dictates and every type of regulation imaginable, then cope with malpractice issues… oh, right, and maybe even have families. No thanks.

     Yeah, but think of the money.  I know of surgeons who take home close to two million dollars a year after taxes. Without exception, they are physical wrecks, with severely fractured family lives, if any, and have forgotten to laugh… and pray… and eat right… and sleep right… and exercise… and be happy!

     Many drink too much  or pop too many pills or live like zombies. So, yeah, think of the money.

     The bottom line is  that we need to give doctors a break. They don’t have any inventory to sell, or staff who can step up to let them take time off to rest or vacation more than a few days. They are devoted to delivering care to patients but won’t get paid by insurance companies if they spend too many minutes with each patient.

     Oh, and the insurance companies  often don’t pay the doctor until many months after patient care is delivered, and even then it’s typically a nightmare trying to collect what’s owed. Healthcare screw-ups are not because of doctors.

     And healthcare screw-ups  will NOT be solved by any kind of universal federal government mandates. A competitive business arena must exist if healthcare is in fact ever to be viable and available to all. And physicians must be allowed to be an integral part of the process. They deserve the opportunity to deliver quality care without politician interference. 

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