Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

The consequence of neglect: the lack of business education in medical schools

Curtis G. Graham, MD
Physician
February 21, 2023
Share
Tweet
Share

Repeated media articles continue to inform the public that we don’t have enough physicians to handle our health care, and it’s worsening. We have at least 174 accredited medical schools in our nation that are still producing medical doctors and about 22,000 annually from all medical schools who enter a medical practice of some kind.

That must be a satisfactory number because they aren’t building medical schools much anymore. The existing medical schools are not increasing their class sizes by over 1 to 3 percent annually. And suppose you average out the number of physicians practicing medicine today in our nation, disregarding those headed for research or PhDs. In that case, one can guess that about 1,500,000 are still at work practicing medicine in the U.S.

Accounting for the increasing number of physicians leaving clinical medical practice annually resulting from insufficient income is of concern. For some reason, no medical professional organization tracks those numbers for verification. My concern is that the number of these physicians is far higher than any have estimated.

Suppose you don’t know the true number of physicians quitting medical practice. How can anyone even estimate the seriousness of the problem in health care or correct the causes of the problems? Yet the media frequently keeps broadcasting the increasing attrition of physicians as a problem.

I know that physicians’ attrition has evolved exponentially for various reasons:

1. More physicians practice only part-time. When you add the total number of hours that all physicians practice medicine, total patient care is reduced significantly across our nation.

2. Some medical schools are reducing their entrance qualifications. Not good for us when less qualified physicians continue to increase annually. We don’t read anything about that in the papers.

3. Some college students are no longer applying to medical schools. Why? College students are aware of the abuse of private practice physicians nationwide. They are heading to other professions that are more income stable and where less work is required.

4. What do you think the college students are learning about that turns them off regarding becoming physicians?

Many physicians report not having enough income to fund retirement plans and being unable to send their kids to the desired colleges. They can’t keep up with their medical knowledge and skills because they lack enough income to accomplish that.

Medical practice mandates are increasingly used by our government to cause the disintegration of private medical practice purposely. Politicians know that eliminating private medical practice is necessary to control all health care and the medical profession. It also enables the establishment of socialized medicine.

The government plan is working quite well, especially when no one in the medical profession objects loud enough and often enough. Physicians have few to no allies to fight back—employed physicians find it convenient to rationalize their status and could care less.

Burnout is a predator that has exploded in the medical profession, commonly described as “overwork.” Private practice physicians are being forced to recruit and manage far more medical patients daily to earn enough to pay the overhead, staff demanding raises in income, increased paperwork, and, worst of all, often, loss of their families.

When any physician loses their private practice, the only place they can practice is to promptly jump into government-controlled medical facilities and tolerate being told how to practice medicine until retirement. It’s a perfect plan to eliminate independent medical practice—and it is working perfectly.

Starting a new solo medical practice over again often attracts the same outcome again—because they are business ignorant, the process is long and increasingly stressful. At this point, these physicians don’t understand why they lost their medical practice in the first place and, therefore, often end up in the same dilemma later and again.

New medical students are likely to head for the highest-paid medical specialties, whether they are talented in those areas or not, just for the income that is necessary to live a life appropriate for their level of education and the importance of their elite value in medical care that few people ever attain.

The most extraordinary factor affecting every aspect of a physician’s practice throughout this message is the willful defiance of 98 percent of physicians in medical practice today to understand that their maximum accomplishments in the practice of medicine can only be attained because of business education tools that propel incomes beyond their imaginations.

My fourteen years in employed medical practice and many more years in private medical practice have provided me with the essence of successful medical practice, which I love to teach to other physicians who are willing to listen. However, it took me another 15 years before I discovered the core of the problem: I was business ignorant.

I could only learn from my mistakes by spending over ten years following my leaving medical practice and forcing myself to secure a quality business and marketing education from a business and marketing world expert. And that is when I recognized what caused my practice problems. For over ten decades, thousands of other physicians in our nation have suffered from the same problem for the same reason. As health care quality is decreasing, nothing has been done to fix the problem.

The tragedy is that our medical schools deny responsibility for providing a business education for medical students, let alone a digital business education they can learn from over four years in medical school at minimal expense.

Curtis G. Graham is a physician.

Prev

Why are doctors sued and politicians aren't?

February 21, 2023 Kevin 6
…
Next

The middle road to childhood obesity treatment: Empowering kids with healthy habits

February 21, 2023 Kevin 0
…

Tagged as: Practice Management

Post navigation

< Previous Post
Why are doctors sued and politicians aren't?
Next Post >
The middle road to childhood obesity treatment: Empowering kids with healthy habits

More by Curtis G. Graham, MD

  • Navigating the challenges of coaching in the medical field

    Curtis G. Graham, MD
  • How receiving medical practice coaching can multiply your income

    Curtis G. Graham, MD
  • The million dollar mistake: Why medical schools don’t teach business and how it’s costing physicians

    Curtis G. Graham, MD

Related Posts

  • The truth about Caribbean medical schools

    Jessica K. Willett, MD
  • Medical schools need to cut their cutthroat culture

    Glen Jacobs, DeD
  • Formalized mentorship as a requirement for medical schools

    Micaela Stevenson
  • Why medical students should be taught the business side of medicine

    Martinus Megalla
  • We need more doctors. International medical schools can provide them.

    Richard Liebowitz, MD
  • The medical education system hates families

    Anonymous

More in Physician

  • Finding peace through surrender: a personal exploration

    Dympna Weil, MD
  • The struggle to fill emergency medicine residency spots: Exploring the factors behind the unfilled match

    Katrina Gipson, MD, MPH
  • Beyond the disease: the power of empathy in health care

    Nana Dadzie Ghansah, MD
  • How to overcome telemedicine’s biggest obstacles

    Harvey Castro, MD, MBA
  • The patient who became my soulmate

    Anonymous
  • Breaking the stigma: Addressing the struggles of physicians

    Jean Antonucci, MD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Resetting the doctor-patient relationship: Navigating the challenges of modern primary care

      Jeffrey H. Millstein, MD | Physician
    • Nobody wants this job. Should physicians stick around?

      Katie Klingberg, MD | Physician
    • Healing the damaged nurse-physician dynamic

      Angel J. Mena, MD and Ali Morin, MSN, RN | Policy
    • Lifestyle change: the forgotten solution in health care

      Tyler Petersen | Conditions
    • From physician to patient: one doctor’s journey to finding purpose after a devastating injury

      Stephanie Pearson, MD | Physician
    • Breaking the stigma: Addressing the struggles of physicians

      Jean Antonucci, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • The hidden dangers of the Nebraska Heartbeat Act

      Meghan Sheehan, MD | Policy
    • The vital importance of climate change education in medical schools

      Helen Kim, MD | Policy
    • The fight for reproductive health: Why medication abortion matters

      Catherine Hennessey, MD | Physician
    • Nobody wants this job. Should physicians stick around?

      Katie Klingberg, MD | Physician
    • Resetting the doctor-patient relationship: Navigating the challenges of modern primary care

      Jeffrey H. Millstein, MD | Physician
    • Why are doctors sued and politicians aren’t?

      Kellie Lease Stecher, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • The real cause of America’s opioid crisis: Doctors are not to blame

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD | Meds
    • How medical student loan forgiveness can advance health equity [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The rise of generative AI in health care: Here’s what you need to know

      Anil Saldanha | Tech
    • Finding peace through surrender: a personal exploration

      Dympna Weil, MD | Physician
    • The struggle to fill emergency medicine residency spots: Exploring the factors behind the unfilled match

      Katrina Gipson, MD, MPH | Physician
    • Unlocking the secret to successful weight loss: Curiosity is the key

      Franchell Hamilton, MD | Conditions

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

Leave a Comment

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

CME Spotlights

From MedPage Today

Latest News

  • Heart Failure's Obesity Paradox Falls Apart on Further Inspection
  • Nobody Wants This Job. Should Physicians Stick Around?
  • Early Postpartum IUD Placement Yields Low Complete Expulsion Rate
  • Hydrocortisone Reduced Mortality in Patients With Severe Pneumonia
  • Obesity Tied to Density of Food Stores Carrying Less Healthy Options, Report Finds

Meeting Coverage

  • Trial of Novel TYK2 Inhibitor Hits Its Endpoint in Plaque Psoriasis
  • Durable Vitiligo Responses With Topical Ruxolitinib
  • High Rates of Psoriasis Clearance With Investigational TYK2 Inhibitor
  • Rapid Improvement in Atopic Dermatitis With Topical PDE4 Inhibitor
  • New Approaches in the Bladder-Sparing Paradigm
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Resetting the doctor-patient relationship: Navigating the challenges of modern primary care

      Jeffrey H. Millstein, MD | Physician
    • Nobody wants this job. Should physicians stick around?

      Katie Klingberg, MD | Physician
    • Healing the damaged nurse-physician dynamic

      Angel J. Mena, MD and Ali Morin, MSN, RN | Policy
    • Lifestyle change: the forgotten solution in health care

      Tyler Petersen | Conditions
    • From physician to patient: one doctor’s journey to finding purpose after a devastating injury

      Stephanie Pearson, MD | Physician
    • Breaking the stigma: Addressing the struggles of physicians

      Jean Antonucci, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • The hidden dangers of the Nebraska Heartbeat Act

      Meghan Sheehan, MD | Policy
    • The vital importance of climate change education in medical schools

      Helen Kim, MD | Policy
    • The fight for reproductive health: Why medication abortion matters

      Catherine Hennessey, MD | Physician
    • Nobody wants this job. Should physicians stick around?

      Katie Klingberg, MD | Physician
    • Resetting the doctor-patient relationship: Navigating the challenges of modern primary care

      Jeffrey H. Millstein, MD | Physician
    • Why are doctors sued and politicians aren’t?

      Kellie Lease Stecher, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • The real cause of America’s opioid crisis: Doctors are not to blame

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD | Meds
    • How medical student loan forgiveness can advance health equity [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The rise of generative AI in health care: Here’s what you need to know

      Anil Saldanha | Tech
    • Finding peace through surrender: a personal exploration

      Dympna Weil, MD | Physician
    • The struggle to fill emergency medicine residency spots: Exploring the factors behind the unfilled match

      Katrina Gipson, MD, MPH | Physician
    • Unlocking the secret to successful weight loss: Curiosity is the key

      Franchell Hamilton, MD | Conditions

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today iMedicalApps
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Leave a Comment

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...