working smarter

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lou, you are so right-- the underlying question LK is asking is, can i have it all? can i have a satisfying medical practice, seeing fewer patients, without feeling burned out, getting home on time, having time to spend with my family, and have the same or more for income? LK is already using IMP principles, so why isn't this magical situation happening? and now he's asking us, well, you seem to have it made, just how much do you make? is it working for you?he's not going to move, he's going to continue supporting his family, he's going to pay for his kids' college, none of that will change; what he wants is more money, more time with his family, and to be relieved of his burnout.the short answer is, here's what we make, based on geographic area and payor mix, and style of practice, and # of patients daily.the long is answer is, don't know if LK can make more working smarter; but brady and egly are on the right track.a

detailed analysis is required, and can only be done by LK himself, all the way from changing patient information printouts from one-sided to two-sided, to save paper, to replacing staff who are not performing, to receiving all faxes electronically.whether LK's burnout is related to work, family, or elsewise, don't know.does he need a vacation? don't know. will it help? don't know.sounds like loss of control could be a factor here, i'm doing everything right that i know, i'm following this group's suggestions, and nothing seems to change, and i'm NOT MAKING MORE MONEY!then look further, and rather at the volume, look at the work flow and the overhead. look at yourself, and see what and how you are doing, and does your staff take their cues from you?if overhead is maximally reduced, and if volume is maximally increased, then you have to look at workflow, which includes every single process from how patients get to you and return to

you, to the deposit of payments into your bank account, and everything in between.and remember, if you or any or your IM team are killed or captured, the secretary will deny all knowlege of your actions.hope that's helpful.LLl_spikol wrote: I'm going to take another tact and try to answer this physicians question. I'm sure by now he's convinced that everybody on this listserv is innovative, reasonably happy and extremely nice and fascinating people (I'm certainly convinced). However, I think he

really wants to know how much money people make on this listserv. I will go first. Admittedly, I am not a true IMP and do a semi-IMP type of practice-I work for a hospital system, work three days a week and do see at this point a good number of patients-anywhere from 16 to 21 in a full day (20 minute visits). I make 80-90 K. Now I'm going to take a stab at it and say that fewer than 10% of the physicians here make the family medicine average of 150 to 160K. I also think he needs to know that I think Pam Wible being where she is is an outlier in terms of compensation. (I also think that women physicians tend to have an advantage in terms of demand and compensation at this point with regards to primary care) So, if I'm off base I am waiting to be reprimanded and/or corrected. __________________________________________________