Stay at home docs are growing. More physicians want work-liife balance, the relief from stress and generational differences are causing women and millenials to question the 7am-7pm work ethic. Both patients and providers are struggling with the new reality that will present some challenges:
1. We are not training doctors to adapt to the changing landscape but instead persist in using an irrelevant hospital based model.
2. There are more and more options for those interested in non-clinical roles particurly as consutants and free-lancers.
3. Medicine is about lift long learning and practice, practice, practice, particularly foor proceduralists. Are part timers as good as full timers?
4. Generational differences are causing graduates to question their commitment to a full time career, let alone a full time job.
5. More and more women doctors are working more and more part time
6. Patients are questioning doctor shift changes
7. Hand offs are already causing problems. More of them will create more problems.
8. Technology and machines will displace some doctors. They will inevitably find something else to do to add value to patients.
9. The demand for care is infinite. The supply is becoming more constrained, requirng more, not less, effort of those in the trenches.
10. Some believe the economy has fundamentally changes, creating PartTime Nation will the all the savings, investment, benefits and social upheaval it will cause.
Part time docs are more and more becoming a growing segment of the physician workforce. Their numbers will grow and so will the issues they present. The sooner the medical establishment understands that, the better we can make the adjustments necessary to adapt. These folks aren’t going away.
Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs at www.sopenet.org
