A recent report, “Supporting and Promoting High-Performing Physician-Owned Private Practices: Voices from the Front Lines” (PDF), was co-published by the AMA and Mathematica. It was a qualitative study conducted to define, analyze and assess the factors that create and sustain high-performing, physician-owned private practices. Here was their big conclusion:
The physicians interviewed appeared “doggedly determined to succeed in private practice.”
No sh$t.
When there is no safety net then you have no other option but to grind until you make it. Direct Primary Care docs know this all too well. They can’t even rely on the FFS, of which patients are accustomed. Nope. They need to educate and get patients to trust in DPC and pay OUTSIDE the insurance model. You need serious guts to do this.
The study also found:
- The doctors felt privileged to do work they found meaningful.
- These doctors reported feeling isolated, and many wished they had more contact with like-minded physicians.
Both of these are true for DPC as well. We do meaningful work and that keeps us going. The second issue is NEVER brought up enough. I talk about this in two of my books. We need to stick together. We need to meet with other DPC docs more often. We need online SLACK groups to keep talking. To keep your sanity, we must be a family.
(Image is from the poster in the movie Land of Lost, which is so bad it is actually awesome).