A Look Into The Deterioration of the Physician’s Financial Lifestyle
I came across this excellent article tonight while doing some reading. It’s a close look into how physicians are working more and making less these days. It’s an excellent read and I highly recommend that you all check it out.
Now, announces the New England Journal of Medicine, “many American doctors are unhappy with the quality of their professional lives.” The literature on this reads like the intake form at a depression clinic: “increasing marginalization,” “discontent,” “confused,” “angry,” “insulted.” (Is it any wonder med-school applications are down again this year?) Yes, the doctor is in, but in case you haven’t noticed, there’s a good chance he’s seething. “It’s no fun being a doctor anymore,” is the way one puts it.
At one time, most physicians were their own bosses, entrepreneurs who set up their own small businesses. That was part of the fun. “Now,” says Fox, who is just such an entrepreneur, “I’m a dinosaur.” There has been a vast, largely unnoticed change in the organization of the medical labor force. The solo practitioner, the one most of us grew up trusting, is nearly out of business. From now on, doctors will be employees like everyone else.
Even more disturbing is the discussion on SDN.
I wonder how many of the people on SDN have spent a minute in med school. The day after the first exam, EVERYBODY decides that the only way this is worth it is to get paid.
Yeah, it’s posted in the pre-allo forum and of course you’ve got all of the altruistic pre-meds who know fuck all about medical school or medical training responding like they’ve been practicing medicine for years.
Those silly pre-meds will learn in time.
It’s not entirely their fault. Medical schools push altruism and professionalism all the time. You can’t even get interviewed without spewing some crap about how you felt inspired to help society. What really sucks about the whole thing is that your goodwill gets beaten out of you. I took step 1 two days ago, and now I get FOUR DAYS OFF. School started on January 2nd or 3rd. We got 5 weeks “off” to take boards. We get a week off in fall. I’m paying 40k to get 10 vacation days (plus Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the 4th of July – whoopee). I’ve actually given a lot of thought to trying to steal your Urgent Care center idea and run that when I get out.
Go for it Phil. I think the key to really making it big in medicine is to go business. To hell with the traditional patient care approach. I say use the medical knowledge that you have and use that to make some bank. I’ve got a post coming up in a couple of days that talks a little bit more about making some good money.
After the first few months of school I was betting on not being in practice for long. Since then I’ve always been looking for a way to get some personal and financial freedom. I like sleeping and golf and I’m pretty sure being a doc isn’t conducive to that anymore.
medicine is a pathetic field at present… it will never show any improvement…
The problem with the field is the doctors that just sit there and take it in the name of “altruism” or some equally vague principle.
Those same people then try to shame others who actually see what’s going on into keeping quiet. You see it all the time on SDN. I saw in one of the forums someone saying they feel poor as a resident and someone else came in with a “how dare you say you feel poor when you’re still making more than the avg American.” Sure, at $40k you’re not really poor, but you’ve trained a lot more than the average person and you’re working double the hours.
That attitude is frustrating. Pay cut to $100k? Still better than average… $75k? still better than average. I guess these people are ok working for peanuts.
I guess it’s not all bad. You can hire these fools, pay them what they think is fair and use the remainder to donate half of it to charity and keep the other half and buy yourself a boat… name it “The Altruism”
If they want to work for $75k, I’ll buy a clinic or two and put them to work. It would be a decent little profit.
The statement “Is it any wonder med-school applications are down again this year” is misleading. The AAMC has not released information yet as to how many people have applied this year. Where did this information come from? Further, the number of applicants has increased each year for four years in a row. What do you mean by “down again?”
Good point Half MD. That information was actually copied and pasted from the original article into the blockquote on my site. I always quote information that’s taken straight from the article of reference. I don’t know where they got that information, but it wasn’t referenced in the original article.
I don’t know when the AAMC released this study (http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/charts1982to2006.pdf), but their data shows that applications to medical school are cyclical. You’ll notice the peak in the mid-90’s, followed by the drop in 2000, and then the upswing again that is currently occurring. The AAMC does not try to explain this behavior, but I think that it’s due to the economy. When the economy is going great, people feel that they can make money in other fields and abandon medicine. When the economy turns south, college students flee back to medicine.
I completely agree Half. Back in the late 90s, there was a lot of talk and hype about going into IT and this was about the time that the .coms were soaring on the stock market.
Then the .com bubble popped, and economy dipped a bit, and medical school apps picked up around 2000. It’s probably not too far off to say that we might be seeing the tail-end of the 2000 upswing in medical school applications.
If things continue to go south in medicine with more work, decreased payouts, and loss of autonomy we’ll certainly see applications decline in the near future I think.
I think it’s interesting how doctors are expected to be so altruistic as to essentially donate much of their time. Yet, if you suggested to any other professional or tradesperson that they should donate a large chunk of their time (because, you know, that little old lady REALLY needs her cabinets), they would laugh at you.
But come on! I really need cabinets. I thought you went into carpentry to help people through wood working. How could you be so insensitive to the needs of others?