The BUSINESS OF MEDICINE FOR RESIDENTS, FELLOWS AND NPS: How to Avoid Pandemic Regret.

Last week I listened to a podcast by Dallas-based corporate strategist Robin Pau.  During the broadcast Robin coined a phrase new to me that applies across the board to many businesses:  Pandemic Regret.
His podcast was built around three activities necessary to make sure that at the end of the virus onslaught you don’t suddenly realize you have not used some of the downtime impacting many medical businesses to plan for the future (i.e. suffer from pandemic regret).  
Those activities are:

• Reflect—review where you are, and what you do and don’t like about your current situation
• Reimagine—take what you like and what you would like to be doing in addition to current activity
• Reset—reopen your business with a wider vision and a “reinvention” of your business.

I field calls from clients around the US, and I’m seeing a significant amount of activity that indicates many in medicine, especially physicians, are engaged in exploring how they would like to reimagine their practices.  Some of the more obvious outgrowths of the pandemic, like a jump into telemedicine, have been obvious and well documented.  But I also talk with physicians leaving corporate medicine to set up solo practices or join small groups, physicians altering the structure of their practices to increase patient interaction, and some leaving full-time practice to work a similar schedule, but as a locum.  Among many I sense a rededication to medicine and patient care, many providers interested in working to expand care in rural, underserved areas.
If you are a resident, fellow, or NP still in your training, don’t be confused with phrases like “medicine will never be the same.”  Many aspects of the business of medicine and running a practice are not going to change much at all, at least not without a longer evolutionary timeline.  Payers will remain present, and dealing with them will continue much as is.  Programs to reward providers for excellent patient care will grow.  Dealing with most of the important issues of running the business of a practice, as outlined in my FirstMEDPractice platform will still require that you understand how your practice is developed, managed and how those aspects will directly contribute to clinical and job satisfaction.
Don’t throw up your hands thinking the that medicine will never be the same.  Most of it will be the same for doctors working to make a good living, run the business of their practice, and find fulfillment. If  you are entering the time in your education when graduation is nearing, and recruiters are contacting you, it is still critically important to understand the business of medicine and how that knowledge will impact practice success.
Finally, one other thing.  Be prepared to develop your own brand, regardless of whether you are in private practice of “corporate” medicine. Understand how social media works and make sure it’s a critical part of your first year in practice.  Work with recognized firms in this area and look to them to provide you with examples of how successful practices are branding themselves as fits your specialty.
Don’t end up with pandemic regret.  Use this time to wisely consider your future, either in your first job or in the continuation of your private practice.  Take Robin Pau’s suggestion seriously.  Reflect.  Reimagine.  Reset.  Then reap the rewards.—Tom Ellis III.  5/1/20.  WWW.FirstMEDPractice.com