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Will US Healthcare Reform Result in Canadian, Mexican or Indian Healthcare?
August 20, 2009 by Dr. Rich Berning
Filed under Opinion
United States’ healthcare reform is being discussed and debated constantly in America right now, but the discussions appear to be based on many assumptions. Assumptions about what the current “Healthcare Bill” now in Congress actually proposes for one. Someone in the debate will argue that a proposal will turn our healthcare system into the “Canadian’s Healthcare System”, and appear to assume that the listener will automatically understand that outcome to be a bad one. Other countries’ healthcare systems, especially England’s, are mentioned in the same manner.
Since starting this website and blog a short time ago I have received emails from doctors in many countries, which is of course wonderful. As an American doctor who started this website out of frustrations I experienced opening my own practice, I realize I was a bit myopic to assume that private practice issues we face are unique to America. In fact, the issues and the processes are often identical, no matter how a country’s healthcare system is structured. I think it’s safe to say that many things will not change even under healthcare reform because, after all, being an excellent doctor supercedes politics and finances.
Several of the international physicians have kindly submitted articles for inclusion on this website. I hope they represent a trend that will continue as we can all learn from each other. The original tagline for PrivatePractice.MD was “Doctors Helping Doctors” and that’s a sentiment I hope to always encourage. Dr. Lawrence Kindo in India has written several articles. The first is entitled “A Perspective On The Indian Healthcare System” and shares his opinion and overview of the medical system in India. I found it interesting that he believes medical tourism will become a big industry for India, and I had the thought that we American doctors never think about our healthcare system in that way (at least I haven’t). Yet we know that people travel to the US from all over the world for the excellent and advanced medical care available in the US. Dr. Kindo’s other article gives a overview of the training Indian doctors receive. It is entitled “Medical Education In India and the US: A Comparison.” I think you’ll find it an interesting article also.
Dr. Rodrigo Rubio , a Mexican anesthesiologist and MBA student, kindly offered to share his knowledge and insights about private medical practice from a Mexican perspective. He has proposed a series of articles, with the first article talking about the value proposition we physicians bring to our patients. I think you’ll agree that the principles are universal and location- independent.
I encourage everyone to write and share their experiences and perspective. Please leave comments as well!
Rural Primary Care Denied
August 20, 2009 by Dr. Rich Berning
Filed under .
Garden Vegetables To Thank The Doctor
Today one of my patients kindly gave me a basket of tomatoes and other vegetables harvested from her garden just this morning. I was touched by her friendly gesture, and surprised because I practice in that urban mecca called Hartford, CT. I’m not sure how many productive gardens there are near me (not to mention that few tomatoes have survived the blight wiping out the tomato harvest in Connecticut this summer).
Reflecting on my day during my drive home, I recalled a wonderful and eye-opening family practice rotation during my fourth year in medical school (1987) to fulfill the AHEC requirement. I lived with a family practice physician’s family in a small central Ohio farming community for one month. Everywhere she went, I went. I scrubbed in and watched her deliver babies. I observed her examining endless patients in her office until early evening many days, helping or assisting when I could, and then went to her home for dinner before crashing into the spare bed in her guest room each night to sleep. Her family welcomed me, as did her many patients.
Maybe Doctors Feel Like Celebrities in Rural Communities (but are too humble to admit it.)
By the end of the month I was recognized and greeted as “doc” by people I passed on the street as I walked to the post office or corner store (pretty cool experience for a new doctor), and I couldn’t help but smile and feel lucky to be there. These patients often brought my hard-working preceptor vegetables from their garden, or a freshly baked pie, or a scarf knitted just for her. Clearly they welcome their doctors into their lives as another family member.
The family practice rotation accomplished its goal of exposing a city boy to rural primary care medicine. I didn’t even think about the logistics and practice management aspects of my preceptor’s practice, so different from others I had seen up to then, or talk to her about her salary. She mentioned she loved the “life of a country doctor” and “don’t consider it if you want to make a lot of money”. Practicing medicine for the sake of practicing medicine, and being such an important part of these patients’ lives and families, was definitely appealing to me.
What Do You Mean You “Want To Be A Country Doctor”?
When that rotation ended, and I returned home to my reality, I was convinced I would follow in that inspiring family physician’s footsteps and hang up my shingle in a small rural town someday. Alas, it was not to be. For reasons you can guess, trite reasons to some degree I’ll admit in retrospect, I was tempted by the fruit of other specialties and ended up denying my dream of a rural primary care practice. It was the right decision for me then, and I enjoy my medical practice now, but I still remember that very special experience in small town America and sometimes even let myself wonder how my life may have been different had I chosen that career path.
A basket of garden vegetables brought it all back for me today.
Ideal Medical Practices
July 20, 2009 by Dr. Rich Berning
Filed under .
In my constant searching and researching for useful information to share with my fellow physicians in private practice, I have found a number of useful and interesting blogs and websites which I will share with you from time to time.
Recently I discovered the blog Ideal Medical Practices which is a group or collaborative blog (like I’m working to build here at PrivatePractice.MD). In their own words, the authors state their blog’s purpose is “to pursue, support, evaluate, and educate others with regard to delivering superb health care in a vital and sustainable environment. ” I share that goal!
Currently they are sponsoring a blogging contest for participants at their IMP Camp in Seattle, WA August 14-15, 2009. Participants will blog at the camp about their concept of an ideal medical practice.
Go check it out. I think you’ll find it as useful and interesting as I have!
Doctors are the Cause of the Healthcare Crisis
June 10, 2009 by Dr. Rich Berning
Filed under Opinion
There’s an awful lot of finger pointing going on, as to whom or what is to blame for our healthcare crisis in the US. In the June 1st, 2009 edition of the New Yorker magazine, physician and best selling author Dr. Atul Gawande makes a case for physicians, and specifically “entrepreneurial” physicians, as the main reason healthcare costs have skyrocketed. Read more
Physicians in Private Practice Need to be Entrepreneurs
June 3, 2009 by Dr. Rich Berning
Filed under Opinion
It is more important than ever for private practice physicians to sharpen their entrepreneurial edge, and I mean that in a good way. With the various healthcare reform options being discussed, I hear a recurrent theme that in order to bring healthcare costs down, and the quality of patient care up, we physicians are going to have to be smarter, more efficient and results driven. In other words, think like an entrepreneur running your practice. I use “entrepreneur” in its positive sense: innovative, creative, nimble, frugal, and so on. For some, the word entrepreneurial is negative, as in greedy or always distracted by the financial aspects of work, but I disagree with that negative interpretation.
In the past, perhaps, starting and managing a medical practice was pretty standard stuff. Get your medical degree, hang out your shingle, and you stayed in business as long as you took good care of your patients. But there’s no doubt the classic private practice paradigm of the last 50 years will disappear and new practice models will evolve. It’s fair to say, I think, that no two practices will be completely alike and instead there will be many versions. Some of the “reformers” might argue that all medical and healthcare practices should operate like McDonald’s and in some practice settings maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad approach. Read more
Share Your Private Practice Management Tips
June 2, 2009 by Dr. Rich Berning
Filed under Management
For PrivatePractice.MD to become truly useful for doctors starting a new private medical practice, members will need to share their own knowedge and experiences with other members. I would be thrilled to see experienced doctors become mentors to the newly minted doctors. Private practice mastermind groups would be another way doctors and their advisors can learn from each other and have some fun at the same time.
Please add a piece of advice or useful tip that you use in starting or managing your own private practice. Use the comment section to this post. Once enough tips are suggested, they will be organized on the resources page. If you have a dilemma or question, you can ask it here too. The plan for this website is to have a private doctor’s forum eventually, but I will wait until this community grows over time.
Will US Healthcare Reform Result in Canadian, Mexican or Indian Healthcare?
August 20, 2009 by Dr. Rich Berning
Filed under Opinion
United States’ healthcare reform is being discussed and debated constantly in America right now, but the discussions appear to be based on many assumptions. Assumptions about what the current “Healthcare Bill” now in Congress actually proposes for one. Someone in the debate will argue that a proposal will turn our healthcare system into the “Canadian’s Healthcare System”, and appear to assume that the listener will automatically understand that outcome to be a bad one. Other countries’ healthcare systems, especially England’s, are mentioned in the same manner.
Since starting this website and blog a short time ago I have received emails from doctors in many countries, which is of course wonderful. As an American doctor who started this website out of frustrations I experienced opening my own practice, I realize I was a bit myopic to assume that private practice issues we face are unique to America. In fact, the issues and the processes are often identical, no matter how a country’s healthcare system is structured. I think it’s safe to say that many things will not change even under healthcare reform because, after all, being an excellent doctor supercedes politics and finances.
Several of the international physicians have kindly submitted articles for inclusion on this website. I hope they represent a trend that will continue as we can all learn from each other. The original tagline for PrivatePractice.MD was “Doctors Helping Doctors” and that’s a sentiment I hope to always encourage. Dr. Lawrence Kindo in India has written several articles. The first is entitled “A Perspective On The Indian Healthcare System” and shares his opinion and overview of the medical system in India. I found it interesting that he believes medical tourism will become a big industry for India, and I had the thought that we American doctors never think about our healthcare system in that way (at least I haven’t). Yet we know that people travel to the US from all over the world for the excellent and advanced medical care available in the US. Dr. Kindo’s other article gives a overview of the training Indian doctors receive. It is entitled “Medical Education In India and the US: A Comparison.” I think you’ll find it an interesting article also.
Dr. Rodrigo Rubio , a Mexican anesthesiologist and MBA student, kindly offered to share his knowledge and insights about private medical practice from a Mexican perspective. He has proposed a series of articles, with the first article talking about the value proposition we physicians bring to our patients. I think you’ll agree that the principles are universal and location- independent.
I encourage everyone to write and share their experiences and perspective. Please leave comments as well!
Rural Primary Care Denied
August 20, 2009 by Dr. Rich Berning
Filed under .
Garden Vegetables To Thank The Doctor
Today one of my patients kindly gave me a basket of tomatoes and other vegetables harvested from her garden just this morning. I was touched by her friendly gesture, and surprised because I practice in that urban mecca called Hartford, CT. I’m not sure how many productive gardens there are near me (not to mention that few tomatoes have survived the blight wiping out the tomato harvest in Connecticut this summer).
Reflecting on my day during my drive home, I recalled a wonderful and eye-opening family practice rotation during my fourth year in medical school (1987) to fulfill the AHEC requirement. I lived with a family practice physician’s family in a small central Ohio farming community for one month. Everywhere she went, I went. I scrubbed in and watched her deliver babies. I observed her examining endless patients in her office until early evening many days, helping or assisting when I could, and then went to her home for dinner before crashing into the spare bed in her guest room each night to sleep. Her family welcomed me, as did her many patients.
Maybe Doctors Feel Like Celebrities in Rural Communities (but are too humble to admit it.)
By the end of the month I was recognized and greeted as “doc” by people I passed on the street as I walked to the post office or corner store (pretty cool experience for a new doctor), and I couldn’t help but smile and feel lucky to be there. These patients often brought my hard-working preceptor vegetables from their garden, or a freshly baked pie, or a scarf knitted just for her. Clearly they welcome their doctors into their lives as another family member.
The family practice rotation accomplished its goal of exposing a city boy to rural primary care medicine. I didn’t even think about the logistics and practice management aspects of my preceptor’s practice, so different from others I had seen up to then, or talk to her about her salary. She mentioned she loved the “life of a country doctor” and “don’t consider it if you want to make a lot of money”. Practicing medicine for the sake of practicing medicine, and being such an important part of these patients’ lives and families, was definitely appealing to me.
What Do You Mean You “Want To Be A Country Doctor”?
When that rotation ended, and I returned home to my reality, I was convinced I would follow in that inspiring family physician’s footsteps and hang up my shingle in a small rural town someday. Alas, it was not to be. For reasons you can guess, trite reasons to some degree I’ll admit in retrospect, I was tempted by the fruit of other specialties and ended up denying my dream of a rural primary care practice. It was the right decision for me then, and I enjoy my medical practice now, but I still remember that very special experience in small town America and sometimes even let myself wonder how my life may have been different had I chosen that career path.
A basket of garden vegetables brought it all back for me today.
Ideal Medical Practices
July 20, 2009 by Dr. Rich Berning
Filed under .
In my constant searching and researching for useful information to share with my fellow physicians in private practice, I have found a number of useful and interesting blogs and websites which I will share with you from time to time.
Recently I discovered the blog Ideal Medical Practices which is a group or collaborative blog (like I’m working to build here at PrivatePractice.MD). In their own words, the authors state their blog’s purpose is “to pursue, support, evaluate, and educate others with regard to delivering superb health care in a vital and sustainable environment. ” I share that goal!
Currently they are sponsoring a blogging contest for participants at their IMP Camp in Seattle, WA August 14-15, 2009. Participants will blog at the camp about their concept of an ideal medical practice.
Go check it out. I think you’ll find it as useful and interesting as I have!
Doctors are the Cause of the Healthcare Crisis
June 10, 2009 by Dr. Rich Berning
Filed under Opinion
There’s an awful lot of finger pointing going on, as to whom or what is to blame for our healthcare crisis in the US. In the June 1st, 2009 edition of the New Yorker magazine, physician and best selling author Dr. Atul Gawande makes a case for physicians, and specifically “entrepreneurial” physicians, as the main reason healthcare costs have skyrocketed. Read more
Physicians in Private Practice Need to be Entrepreneurs
June 3, 2009 by Dr. Rich Berning
Filed under Opinion
It is more important than ever for private practice physicians to sharpen their entrepreneurial edge, and I mean that in a good way. With the various healthcare reform options being discussed, I hear a recurrent theme that in order to bring healthcare costs down, and the quality of patient care up, we physicians are going to have to be smarter, more efficient and results driven. In other words, think like an entrepreneur running your practice. I use “entrepreneur” in its positive sense: innovative, creative, nimble, frugal, and so on. For some, the word entrepreneurial is negative, as in greedy or always distracted by the financial aspects of work, but I disagree with that negative interpretation.
In the past, perhaps, starting and managing a medical practice was pretty standard stuff. Get your medical degree, hang out your shingle, and you stayed in business as long as you took good care of your patients. But there’s no doubt the classic private practice paradigm of the last 50 years will disappear and new practice models will evolve. It’s fair to say, I think, that no two practices will be completely alike and instead there will be many versions. Some of the “reformers” might argue that all medical and healthcare practices should operate like McDonald’s and in some practice settings maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad approach. Read more
Share Your Private Practice Management Tips
June 2, 2009 by Dr. Rich Berning
Filed under Management
For PrivatePractice.MD to become truly useful for doctors starting a new private medical practice, members will need to share their own knowedge and experiences with other members. I would be thrilled to see experienced doctors become mentors to the newly minted doctors. Private practice mastermind groups would be another way doctors and their advisors can learn from each other and have some fun at the same time.
Please add a piece of advice or useful tip that you use in starting or managing your own private practice. Use the comment section to this post. Once enough tips are suggested, they will be organized on the resources page. If you have a dilemma or question, you can ask it here too. The plan for this website is to have a private doctor’s forum eventually, but I will wait until this community grows over time.
Healthcare X PRIZE