Burnout doesn’t happen all at once. It happens little by little.
Things slowly get worse as the joy of practicing diminishes.
Inevitably, when it finally hits the tipping point, it forces the physician to look for a way out.
Some are close enough to retirement to push through a few more years.
Others are creative enough to find a way of supporting themselves outside of practicing in the system.
Sadly, others choose a much darker path.
We get so brainwashed by health insurance and hospital systems that we think that there is only one way to practice medicine; the way they tell us to.
This is really only a modern dilemma that we all think is permanent.
It only exists because we keep it existing by working for hospital systems and by billing insurances.
Burnout doesn’t happen all at once. It happens little by little.
You can practice without any hospital system or insurance company involvement. You will be immediately happier.
There are a lot of naysayers, who will tell you that it won’t work.
They are wrong, it does.
Me and thousands of other practicing physicians are proof. Direct primary care doctors have figured it out.
I’m trying to figure it out for orthopedics.
I believe that for almost every specialty there is a way to practice fully independently, you just need some creativity and ability to take risk.
Pioneering is never easy.