Should This Book Be Written?
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.
This might be your answer on the graph. I use these in my presentations and discussions. https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/06/join-me-on-a-dive-down-the-rabbit-hole-of-health-care-admin-costs/
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.
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.
Amazing, right? Thanks for the tidbits of horror. Go DPC!