Thu. May 2nd, 2024

Yes, this picture is not real. Well, it is real as it relates to what it says on the cover but I have not written it. I have always been amazed at how many administrators there are in the medical system. Here is the famous graph:

The interesting thing about this picture is that it has NEVER been updated in 15 years!!!! Why is that? I even tried contacting the authors who made the graph and there was no response. I personally believe that this is 10 times worse since the ACA and that is why there has been no update. Bad optics. Nevertheless, there is no reason there are so many administrators. I call them Administribbles because they multiply so fast (that’s a Star Trek reference).

How many of you need administrative help? I needed my wife to be the practice manager (not really an administrator) but that was it. It is not a 30 to 1 ratio. DPC eliminates the waste and that waste is called an administrator.

Hell, maybe I should write this book.

179200cookie-checkShould This Book Be Written?
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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.

4 thoughts on “Should This Book Be Written?”
    1. Thanks for the update. The only thing it doesn’t explain is that when I started at a hospital there were staff meeting with a few admins. By the time I left 15 years later there were more admins in those meetings than docs.

  1. The sheer number of dashed reporting lines I have had in some prior jobs was mind boggling. I can think of only one committee that I served on where the physicians clearly outnumbered the admin. Oddly enough it was compliance at the University. A committee with subject matter so unsexy (motto: we take horrible policy ideas and make them merely bad) that even admin doesn’t want to serve on it. The article does show 1100% admin growth. That is still bananas. When I have medical students rotate with me, I point out that there is no room for anyone that doesn’t directly care for a patient–including them! Maybe that’s why I am happy.

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