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I never thought that I would start a medical practice.
When I was a pre-medical student years ago, I had only dreamed of being a doctor. I thought being a doctor was enough. I thought that I wouldn’t mind any working environment as long as I could have a direct role in patient care.
Little did I know how wrong I was. In fact, I would argue now that having a naive and relaxed worldview severely limits you to practice medicine the way you see fit.
How did I transition from the structured world of corporate America to the autonomy of running my own medical practice?
Well, its about getting up after getting knocked down. I went thought 3 stages, and stage 1 was definitely a dark spot in my life.
Stage 1: Betrayed and Lost
One of the biggest things I was worried about as a resident was a private equity job. I was warned several times by several different attending at Baylor about the horrors of private equity. Don’t make my mistake in joining the wrong practice.
In fact, when I set off on my job searching experience, that was one of the most important criteria: I refused to practice under a private equity owned practice.
I thought I had found my dream job. It was in Atlanta (my wife’s hometown) and it was a physician owned group. The CEO had even told me that they felt the practice was strong and thus “didn’t need PE to thrive.” Ironically, as of 2024, the private equity group that bought out my practice struggled with debt and had to sell it.
And thus, all was well I was on a traditional partnership track in a physician owned group.
Until it wasn’t. My practice had signed with a private equity group almost right after I joined.
Stage 2: Finding Inspiration
To no one’s surprise, the only doctors that were happy were the ones who sold my practice. Everyone else did not like the change.
Retention of physician and staff were low.
- 2 surgeons joined in 2019. Both quit
- 2 surgeons joined in 2020. One quit
- 1 surgeon joined in 2021. That individual quit
If you were keeping score, 4/5 of the most recent hires quit by the time I left the company. Needless to say, morale was at an all time low. I felt both betrayed and trap. My sense of duty to patient care kept me going, but I knew that this would ultimately lead to burnout.
A colleague mentioned the possibility of going solo, an idea that initially seemed far-fetched to me. I was told at length in residency that solo practice can’t survive.
However, their mention of the Solo Building Blog sparked my curiosity. Reading through the articles, I discovered a wealth of information and insights into the viability of starting a solo medical practice.
This is the one article that gave me the courage to make the leap. This article showed that financially it was possible to not only survive as a solo group, but in fact you thrive.
Stage 3: Making The Leap
Encouraged by what I had learned, I delved deeper into the world of solo practice.
Attending a talk by Howie Chen, the author of the Solo Building Blog, at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) further solidified my belief in the feasibility of going solo. The key, I discovered, lay in managing overhead and embracing the freedom to chart my own course.
And the rest as you say is history. I will dive more into the process with other posts.
But here are some numbers for those of you guys reading
- It takes 3-4 patients a day to keep the lights on and pay the bills. I did this within 4 months.
- It takes 10-12 patients a day to make more than a PE private practice ophthalmologist. I did this within 18 months.
I hope that helps stay inspired. You don’t have to work for corporate America. You can start your own practice and succeed and love what you do again.
