Burnout
How to avoid it as a healthcare professional
I saw a response/question on social media about physician burnout with respect to Direct Primary Care (DPC), something I began back in 2008 and had to respond.
What follows is how I would explain this to you, my so so bright and amazing readers of Common Sense Health and Wellness.
There is actually less burnout in DPC physicians.
I’ve been doing DPC since 2008 and was probably the 1st DPC practice in NJ. I morphed my DPC more into true health and wellness combining traditional and functional medicine as that is what I believe true Family Practice should be and what my community told me they wanted. It also just happened to be where my interests are.
As for others saying burnout is an issue with DPC, here is my take.
You don’t burnout as a doc when there once again is mutual respect between doc and patient.
You don’t burnout when u have time to actually work to figure out the root causes of issues instead of just putting BigPharma bandaids on.
You don’t burnout when people come to your office and they tell you how glad they are to see you and they are happy to be there working with you.
You don’t burn out as you are not dealing with third party bureaucratic time consuming BS of the traditional system and instead can fully focus on the individual in front of you.
You don’t burnout as you have a direct relationship with the person across from you who wants your help and wants you to use your training and critical thinking skills to help them solve chronic health issues.
You don’t burn out as you now have time to help people reverse chronic health conditions as opposed to putting on more and more BigPharma bandaids.
You don’t burn out as instead of seeing lots of BigPharma reps in your waiting room, you actually have a smaller waiting room as people rarely wait there as you are now on time more.
You don’t burnout as a doc when you are in full control of your practice as you are no longer contracted with any insurers or government programs. You can set your fees to what works best for your community.
You don’t burnout as a doc when due to minimal office bureaucracy, you have less staff working at your office with you, so less coworkers to manage, leading to less overhead expenses, allowing your monthly/annual DPC fees to be reasonable.
You don’t burnout as a doc as you get to set your own work schedule, what days and hours you choose to work. Burnout is often due to lack of control of your work environment. With DPC you have regained your control.
You don’t burnout as a doc when with DPC, you can decide to work in areas you enjoy. I enjoy working in Metabolic health and Functional medicine. Other docs like doing more hands on care such as Sports medicine or Dermatology. With DPC you can choose to practice what you are good at and what you enjoy.
You don’t burnout as a doc when you realize you are no longer competing with anyone but yourself. You don’t win an award for seeing the most number of patients in a day. But you do win your practice members respect for being available when they truly need, whether in person, by video, phone or even just secure text messaging.
You don’t burnout as a doc when you get to spend MORE time with each patient and get to know them better, both medically and as a person. You also usually get to know their family better as well which helps you to help them even more.
Example: I take one day off a week from my office, meaning I don’t go in to the office. But I am still working as my patients know they can reach me whenever needed. Recently I got a message from a patient who was having what they described as weird abdominal pain they thought was from something bad they ate. Well even though I was not in the office we messaged back and forth with options for evaluation and treatment. We left it so we would stay in close touch until their symptoms resolved. Well later that day the symptoms had not resolved. We then did a video visit and just by looking at this person, and knowing from past visits that were not a complainer, I knew this was most likely not a stomach virus. Sent to ER and several hours later they had their appendix out. Now this scenario could also occur in a traditional practice. But getting to know your patients better through longer DPC routine visits enables what we call “the feel”, where you just kind of know something is not quite right.
I could probably keep on writing about the benefits of a DPC practice but I will stop here.
I could probably keep on writing about the benefits of working in an environment that creates the opposite of burnout.
But I will stop for now.
Does anyone have anything they think I missed or should add?
Let me know in the comments below.
You have less burnout when the doctor doesn’t need to schedule continuous follow-up appointments so the practice can remain solvent. With Dr. Horvitz, you schedule a yearly physical, your bloodwork results are analyzed and suggestions are made when needed. You might even earn a sticker for things you are doing right. If you need additional support, Dr H is a phone call away and responds quickly.
To your point, my respected & revered OB/GYN of 30+ years, who delivered my son & saved my life during an extremely difficult delivery, worked for one of the big south Jersey medical 'cartels'. He was at his wits' end in late 2022 - sadly, the last time I was able to see him. To keep his job, not only had he been forced to take THE genetic intervention he did not trust nor want, but was threatened with his medical license being yanked if he was honest with patients about his position on same. He whispered all of this to me in confidence while shaking his head.
After a long career caring for thousands of mothers & babies, I'm certain he has left the practice of medicine at this point, along with so many other truly caring, gifted, & respected physicians. No wonder! Their mission was to help others, not to support what has become the "big business" that is current-day healthcare.... another potential topic, Dr. Steve.