Primary Care and Burnout
The above is from Medical Economics. It shows that the highest percentage of burnout was in primary care. They list the causes as: too many bureaucratic task, too many work hours, increased computerization of practice and insufficient compensation. Hmmm, now what would fix all this? I wonder?
I feel bad for my colleagues with “death row syndrome”. I really do. They are brainwashed into thinking they have no control. How do I know? Look at what they think will help fix all this (bottom right of image):
- Provide…..
- Slash…..
- Greater respect from….
- More positive attitudes from….
I don’t need to finish the sentences to make my point. Every “fix” they call for is EXTERNAL! They depend on others to GIVE them something. That will never happen. It is only fixed by TAKING CONTROL BACK and doing it yourself.
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Our office wants to fix burnout by hiring scribes. Also, some idiot in our community decided that the physician has to place orders into the EMR. All of them. It would be so much easier if the EMR was tweaked to flow more like a paper chart.. have a screen pop up allowing a touch to labs desired rather than changing the screen and searching. All I’m asking for is something as sophisticated as , say ,the Grand Theft Auto programming.
You have to be careful about DPC because not all geographic areas can support this.
Where they have too many people sucking off the government teat won’t work. They won’t give up their beer and cigarettes to pay yer’s fee.
And though hospitalists are coming to rural areas they’re not there yet. Covering the office and the hospital is a bit much but I though most DPC people don’t do hospital anymore.
The above is where I disagree with Doug. Choose the wrong area with too many poor people and your DPC will fail period.
That said, I agree to all of the advantages except one has to be extra careful of where they setup shop. Get in the right place and you’ll reap the benefits. The problem is students aren’t bothering to try this because there are better, more lucrative specialties to pursue. I was originally recommended to anesthesia but I tried surgery and got fired for arguing with an attending. (I didn’t hit the guy mind you) I said, “Screw it.” I can make a living doing FP and switched. Was gratifying for 24 years but now biding my time for 34 and a half months until Medi-care age and retirement. FP is the worse mistake anyone can make as a career unless they
get in the ground floor of DPC in the right area. Problem is there is risk involved doing that.
I’ve seen Pri-care Drs. names in bankruptcy notices in the papers before and I knew danged well it wasn’t because they lived lavish lifestyles.