Thu. May 2nd, 2024

This is a fantastic article by Dr. Edwin Leap. He is an ER doc who has been writing for decades about the problems in healthcare. We have never met but we appreciate each other’s work. His new article is called Admin: ‘EPs are Replaceable Widgets’ and I hope you read it if you are thinking about starting a Direct Primary Care practice. Here are some highlights:

  • These are shocking statistics that predict hard times ahead. Worse, physicians seem to be seen consistently as things that cost corporations and administrators far more than they think they should have to pay them.
  • Our ridiculous need for healthy, safe working environments and pesky desire to think and act independently make us problems to be solved. We are seen as widgets, easily replaced by another piece of the same general shape and hopefully a bit cheaper so that the enormous medical machine can hum along happily.
  • We’ll hire new ones. Because that’s all you have to do. You go out and cast your eye about and find someone fully qualified and just twiddling his thumbs waiting for the opportunity. And they will be just like the hundreds and thousands of qualified and dedicated physicians and others who regularly dread coming to work but do it anyway.
  • We have so many struggles to face and problems to solve. What a pity that one of the most terrible is that those in charge of decisions, policies, and facilities have no idea of the value of the people who do the work.

To be fair, Dr. Leap is talking about his experience in the ER but I know the same thing is going on in Primary Care.

Are you a widget?

Are you feeling devalued by your administrator?

Does your administrator threaten to replace you?

It’s time you learn about Direct Primary Care and be done with them.

177520cookie-check“Then we’ll hire new ones.”
(Visited 138 times, 1 visits today)

By Douglas Farrago, MD

Douglas Farrago MD is board certified in the specialty of Family Practice. He is the inventor of a product called the Knee Saver which is currently in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Knee Saver and its knock-offs are worn by many major league baseball catchers. He is also the inventor of the CryoHelmet used by athletes for head injuries as well as migraine sufferers. From 2001 – 2011, Dr. Farrago was the editor and creator of the Placebo Journal which ran for 10 full years. Described as the Mad Magazine for doctors, he and the Placebo Journal were featured in the Washington Post, US News and World Report, the AP, and the NY Times. Douglas Farrago, MD received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia in 1987, his Masters of Education degree in the area of Exercise Science from the University of Houston in 1990, and his Medical Degree from the University of Texas at Houston in 1994. His residency training occurred way up north at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. In his final year, he was elected Chief Resident by his peers. Dr. Farrago has practiced family medicine for twenty-three years, first in Auburn, Maine and now in Forest, Virginia. He founded Forest Direct Primary Care in 2014, which quickly filled in 18 months. Dr. Farrago still blogs every day on his website Authenticmedicine.com and lectures worldwide about the present crisis in our healthcare system and the effect it has on the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Farrago’s has written three books on direct primary care: The Official Guide to Starting Your Own Direct Primary Care Practice, The Direct Primary Care Doctor’s Daily Motivational Journal and Slowing the Churn in Direct Primary Care (While Also Keeping Your Sanity) are all best sellers in this genre. He is a leading expert in direct primary care model and lectures medical students, residents, and doctors on how to start their own DPC practice. He retired from clinical medicine in October, 2020.

Comment Here and Join the Discussion