Last week (November 20, 2018), I mentioned the increase in the physician dissatisfaction index, which now tops out at 3.95 out of a possible 5. See my Success in Motion video, Physician Misery Index Jumps Up Due To Dissatisfaction.
The survey, conducted annually by the data technology firm Geneia, found that 87% of surveyed physicians say that it’s increasingly harder to spend time in an honest, engaged patient encounter, and that they’re personally at risk of burnout.
Drilling down into the data reveals some particularly interesting details that appear to counter the sales pitch used by hospitals and by corporate/investor-owned healthcare vehicles alike when courting practice acquisitions: “You just practice medicine and we’ll do everything else. After all, you didn’t go into medicine to run a business.”
Close to all (91%) of hospital or corporate employed physicians responding to the survey reported diminished joy in their jobs due to increased demand for data reporting. That level of dissatisfaction far outpaces that of physicians working independently or with true physician-owned practices.
Practice sales make sense some of the time for some physicians. The rest of the time, they don’t.
It’s important that you vet any combination for far more than sales price unless you’re taking the money and running.
