About a month ago, David Liu, a 3rd year resident from the Kaiser Orange County Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program, visited my office for 2 weeks. Here is what he wrote:
I first heard of Dr. S through my med school classmate, Beth. She told me that she had chosen a new family physician who was just excellent. He spent a lot of time with her during their initial consultation and answered all her questions and concerns. I was in the middle of my second year of residency in family medicine at a Kaiser program. I had already begun thinking of what I wanted to do with my career after graduating. I had grown accustomed to the Kaiser way of doing things. It was daunting thinking of my future with 15 minutes per patient and the constant feeling that I had to rush with my patients to get done on time. I knew part of this was due to my lack of experience and knowledge. With time it would get better, right? I wasn't so sure.
Thus, I decided to use some of my elective time early in my third year to shadow different private physicians, to see if there was another way of doing things that fit me better. I had already done a rotation with a "holistic" physician and with a small group practice. Dr. S's practice was next. My friend told me that he had been a former physician in Kaiser and just started private practice after many years with the organization. I thought it would be perfect to see how a former Kaiser physician was doing in private practice.
My experience with Dr. S over the course of 2 weeks was illuminating. On my first day with him, Dr. S explained that he was utilizing a low volume/low overhead model of practice. He explained how he did everything, including answering the phone, taking the vital signs, administering vaccines, etc. He did not have any staff. Patients needed binding arbitration agreements and insurance forms filled out. He used an Electronic Health Record and scanned all documents for the patients into his Apple notebook computer.
Every time he saw a patient, he would bring his notebook computer with him and interview them. With patients he could take an hour or more if needed. He never seemed rushed. I could tell that patients he saw appreciated how much time he had available to investigate all their problems. In addition, it was easy for them to make same day appointments with Dr. S. He was also easily accessible because he gave each of his patients e-mail, cell phone, office number.
He was very open about showing me how his practice worked--including costs, earnings, number of patients, building location, and marketing. In his fledgling practice, Dr. S has had to take a big pay cut from his former Kaiser salary. However, this was in exchange for practicing in a manner that suited him better.
There was also the potential for growth. He typically saw about 8 patients per day. [Actually it's anywhere from 0-8 patients per day.] This was a lot compared to when he started where often he would have no patients. He said that if he wanted more patients, it would be easy to accept HMO insurance, do more admissions at the hospital, etc. But, he felt that for him, it was preferable to take it slow and not take on too much too fast. He thought about how he saw the practice growing and that if he wanted to recruit more patients, there may be a need to hire an assistant. In the foreseeable future, he could be taking over the entire suite of the building he occupied. Then expansion would be possible.
There were inefficiencies. Often, Dr. S would have to leave the exam room to see if a new patient had arrived so they can begin filling out paperwork. Without staff, if a patient needed a lot done, it could take some time to do everything that a patient needed--UA, EKG, vaccines, etc. I could see how it might be easy to fall behind if there ever were any sick patients that needed close attention. Taking care of all the insurance paperwork, organizing his finances, and all the business aspects took time. Dr. S said there are days that he is forced to take work home with him. There was also the logistics of how to best keep track of patient labs and preventative measures. However, given his small volume of patients, I never saw any compromise in patient care during my time with him.
Dr. S was quick to point out to me that his model was still a work in progress and had its pluses and minuses. For a young physician like myself, who still needed seasoning in the practice of medicine, he thought Kaiser or a group practice might be better ways to go--more stability, more patients to see and to learn from, and in Kaiser, less worries outside of the practice of medicine.
I can see how it would be difficult for a brand new graduating resident, in terms of money and experience, to start a practice such as Dr. S's. Conversely, I also feel that perhaps starting young and learning from my mistakes now may be the way to go. From following Dr. S, it has definitely given me insight into a special type of private practice. He also exhibited excellent bedside manner with his patients--always calm and organized, which instilled confidence in his patients. There are definitely aspects of his practice and dealings with patients that I hope to be able to incorporate.
It's hard for me to predict what I will be doing in 5 to 10 years. I do know that I hope to practice medicine in a manner where I will be able to give my patients optimal care to the best of my abilities while being able to maintain a balanced life outside of work. Is Dr. S's way of practice the best way for me? It is hard to say. However, I do hope to follow his lead in striving to practice medicine in the way that best suits my patients and me.
David
Thanks, David, and best of luck in finding out where you want to be.
(This part is for David and Phil Nivatpumin, one of my former students.) I do think that for a new physician coming out of residency that working at Kaiser is an attractive environment to work in. There is minimal administrative paperwork. You have set hours. Once you are off duty, you are off. No worries about being called by a page operator. You can go on vacation and know that someone is covering for you. Call coverage varies for primary care physicians. Depending on which Kaiser facility you work at, call can range from staying in the hospital overnight to working a 4 hour shift in Urgent Care to nothing. At the clinic I used to work at, we didn't work any extra duty for several years.
As a Kaiser physician, there is relative autonomy. You can order almost any medication or test you want without having to have it pre-approved. Of course, that has been changing over the past few years I was there to place more restrictions on the more expensive drugs/tests. I often had to re-educate patients who assumed that physicians were under orders to practice medicine the "Kaiser way".
The salary and benefits were very good. My annual salary was higher than I ever thought it would be as a family physician. Once you become a partner (after 3 years), it's almost impossible to lose your job. Plus I learned a lot, just because of the variety and volume of patients that I saw. For myself, working at Kaiser was a good place for me to be just out of residency.
So why am I no longer at Kaiser? You can read my older entries for a longer explanation. I guess you could say I grew in a different direction. I saw, I did, I taught. Now I want to see, do and teach something new.
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