I recently wrote about the healthcare “game”.

The sad fact that physicians have been reduced to being avatars on the playing board within.

(you can read that piece here)

Physicians aren’t the only ones who are beginning to show serious signs of burnout & suffering; patients will ultimately be feeling this, too. And I know that some would argue they’re already there.

Either way, we’re spiraling into a crisis, head-first.

You can read my website’s entire analogy-laden article here.

Or, you can read the article in my media company’s ARTICLES section, and read what others – doctors & otherwise – have to say about healthcare, too. Check it out on SoMeDocs.

I shared it in a popular physician FB group I was a part of that other day (which I’m happy to credit, should the admins be interested), & was immediately encouraged by another colleague’s reply. It seems that we’re trying – very badly – to come up with feasible solutions to fixing the system, from all ends.

“Don’t wait to get laid off and open a private practice already,” it read. “If you’re smart cut out the hospitals and the insurance companies and do direct care!”

It was Dr. Jared J. Wallen who added his two-cents in there and which, in my opinion, is worth much more.

He permitted me to share his reply here, in an article titled The Downfall Of Medicine: Corporate Health Care And Insurance Game, which you’re welcome to read right here.

Dr. Wallen was referring to the different ways in which physicians are beginning to take ownership of the medical care-giving process; taking back leadership of the relationships we value: the patient-physician bond.

If you want to read a bit more about DPC, for example, and what it stands for, you can listen to Dr. Julie Gunther’s video lecture on the topic, the first in an open-access video series I hosted & produced, and which SoMeDocs distributes, called the How-To Physician series.

Or take an alternative approach to practice building by reading some of the articles of retired practice-owner Dr. Sandra Weitz here (simply scroll down to her profile’s articles)

Skinning the “Healthcare Cat”

I personally feel that there are many ways to skin a cat.

In healthcare practice-building, there isn’t truly one perfect solution that’s one-size-fits-all.

We live in different areas, made of different needs and demographics.

We’re often governed by different local rules, too, and are even surrounded by different competing options as we build.

So it’s not simple.

To add another twist into the mix, hospital care is necessary, too.

Someone needs to run the hospitals and while corporate power is In charge, we can’t so easily call the shots there, even if we once did.

The Beginning

I’m at least thankful that we (physicians) are talking. We’re starting to somewhat speak up (the content section of SoMeDocs, into which the health voices behind our computer screens can submit is growing! Yahoo!)

We’re starting to spitball.

And brainstorm.

And this is the right start.

Quite honestly, it may be the corporate structure of healthcare’s worst nightmare that we do.

When we realize why we’re so burnt out, we recognize the need to unify. We can then put time into reconfiguring how this all works.

I know that I personally struggled with the “How”. I still do.

It was frustrating, while still in practice, to not know where to find peers who had solved various parts of the complex equation (running a practice most efficiently, especially when it translates into better patient health).

It took a lot more than just one connection, after all, to hear how things can be changed to make practice better. We couldn’t make any significant changes, as a medical community, with an n+1.

So I decided to give it my full-time; to amplify the voices of those who “do”.

I decided I felt up for the daunting task of categorizing healthcare experts’ individual work, so that we don’t have to feel like we always need to follow corporations’ advice.

Physician, Own Thyself!

Here’s the bottom line, my physician peers (and all of our other colleagues, struggling to increase your individual worth and gain back the respect you’ve somehow lost along the way), we must figure out the various angles to owning ourselves.

And what we can currently do about it (given these incredible new digital tools in our fingertips).

Not to mention what we’re worth (after the ridiculous amount of sacrifices we made to get to this point).

We must figure out the various angles to owning ourselves.

I personally think a multi-pronged approach to this attack – skinning the healthcare cat” and taking things back down to its basics – is necessary, as any war general would tell you.

We also need better marketing and PR.

Every single one of us needs to start understanding the importance of entrepreneurial & marketing concepts.

We need to utilize “The Online”.

Only then will we begin to make the significant impact needed to restore order – & actual effective & happy working relationships – in healthcare.