Unfortunately, the widespread financial opinions and advice to private medical practice physicians suffering from inadequate practice income today are dominated by a tsunami of experts outside of the medical profession. This includes the administrators and medical education scholars who are in the perfect position not only to diagnose the core problem but also to correct the core cause. So, why haven’t they done it?
Over the last two decades of increasing medical profession dysfunction, innumerable loss of physicians by attrition, reduction of males avoiding medical careers, and unexplained loss of private medical practices other than financial issues, one would believe that no one cares about what is happening in our nation to physicians.
Then it came to me. The real source of most of our problems in private medical practice became obvious when I lost my private specialty medical practice 18 years into it for financial reasons. But I had to prove it.
I knew I had made some mistakes but had no idea what they were. Twenty years of medical research led me to the source of the gradual disintegration of private medical practice and to the health care crisis we now have. Can you imagine how a physician feels and what happens to physicians who lose their medical practices? Is there a more devastating trauma for a medical doctor to face?
This situation left me with an itch that I couldn’t scratch and an anger at myself that continues to this day. My research, however, revealed that no medical school in the USA has ever provided a business education for medical students.
Rare medical schools offer a business MBA—a tool superficial for physicians to use profitably.
If our world of commercial business owners all know that the primary way to success is only by using business education tools daily, then why haven’t physicians who run a business daily been told about or provided with the knowledge about its benefits? The medical education rules prevent medical schools from doing that. We physicians have certainly been set up to fail in private medical practice. Why aren’t there roaring crowds picketing medical schools and demanding to be provided with a business education?
Knowing all these situations and the consequences resulting from the lack of a business education made me angry because I would have never lost my medical practice without a business education. So, in 2014, I wrote and published a book, The Wounded Physician Project. I believed it would stir up physicians about their lack of business education. It didn’t. I revised and updated the book, edition two, in 2021. No help.
I created a website with numerous articles to teach physicians online about business education. It was a membership site, and the information was free to read and learn. It attracted about a hundred para-medical people—no medical doctors. I thought that I could somehow prevent all of the burnout and physician attrition by doing these things. I was wrong and gave it up for several years.
My publishers revealed that my book was the only book ever written in all literature on the topic. By this time, I was severely depressed because I had become an expert in business education and wasn’t using my knowledge. I felt that God had given me a mission for my life after medical practice, and I had failed even that. But I’m now back into it with more motivation and energy.
While I may not possess the accolades of a genius or the credentials of an AOA graduate, I am deeply committed to my mission: to provide accessible online business education for all physicians. My goal is to equip fellow medical professionals with the tools and knowledge they need to navigate the complexities of managing a private practice effectively. Through articles, courses, and personalized guidance, I aim to empower physicians to enhance their practice’s efficiency, productivity, and profitability. By sharing insights and strategies derived from years of experience and research, I hope to contribute positively to the well-being and sustainability of medical practices everywhere.
Curtis G. Graham is a physician.
