Accountable Care Organizations and efficiency have been getting a lot of press of late, but a recent Medscape survey of over 4,600 doctors provides some insight about how doctors feel when they no longer work for themselves, as well as the benefits entrepreneurs find when they decide to go it alone.
Among Medscape’s findings were that doctors who switched from working for others to working for themselves were happier being on their own and that men are more likely than women to have an independent practice.
Medscape found that although working for someone else relieved some doctors of paperwork, being the employed as opposed to employer came with significant drawbacks, with 45% of the polled doctors saying “limited influence in decision-making” was a top gripe, as were limited income potential and too many rules.
The employer/employed split also tended to track with age—Medscape found, for example, that most doctors under 40 tended to work for other organizations, compared to older doctors who were out on their own.
Medscape said many young doctors do not envision themselves as business owners. At the same time, researchers found that predictability was also a key reason for seeking out a boss instead of being one, with 38% saying they opted for employee status because of the financial security. Fifty four percent of employed doctors also said they were happy with their work-life balance.
Medscape says this data point has become a greater priority for younger doctors, compared to their predecessors who expected to sacrifice a significant amount of personal time for their medical practices.
