STORIES
A HOLLOW SHELL
Primary Care
I sold my private practice to a PE-backed MSO a year ago, and now I’m just counting-down the days until my contract expires.
The math of the takeover was simple, but the reality is a disaster. They cut MA pay, which predictably led to a revolving door of staff.
Now, I’m stuck in a permanent cycle of training new MAs who don’t know my flow. My efficiency has cratered, leaving me to spend every evening buried in charts just to keep my head above water. But the worst part is the silence where the culture used to be. My once-vibrant practice, a place focused on patients and people, now feels like a hollow shell. My colleagues and I have become mere laborers tilling a field for someone else’s harvest.
TRANSACTIONAL TREATMENTS
Dermatology, Utah
A few months ago, the senior physicians in my practice brought in a private equity firm. The pitch was the usual: 'We’ll handle the headaches so you can focus on the care. It was a lie. Not only did the 'solutions' create more dysfunction, but the PE guys began influencing how we treat.
They wanted us to bend our clinical judgment to suit their bottom line, treating patients like line items on a spreadsheet. I lasted six weeks before I handed in my notice. Medicine is a profession of trust and service, not a transaction. No doctor should have to trade their autonomy or their integrity for a corporate buyout.
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