A new article from Slate.com is generating a lot of heat online with its controversial headline, "Why Are Doctors’ Offices So Badly Run?" Many doctors would argue that the headline is not only a huge generalization, but also a gross exaggeration. The article itself attempts to address a valid issue, the burnout some doctors feel when they're forced to act as both a physician and a business administrator simultaneously. By some estimates, the average primary care doctor can only spend 30-40 hours on patient care because of paperwork and administrative work loads. As one doctor
explained to the author:
"Katherine White was feeling burned out. The Massachusetts dermatologist runs a private practice at which she oversees a nurse, two medical assistants, two receptionists, and an esthetician. Dr. White’s practice sees about 40 patients per day, which means that she’s on a tight schedule that often has her rushing from one patient to the next. But her staff used to bother her constantly with questions -- about billing, about lab reports, about pharmacy refills -- and White always felt compelled to stop and fix the problem."Eventually, that micromanaging caught up with Dr. White, who nearly missed a skin cancer diagnosis because a patient was forced to languish on a waiting list for months. So while the article's click-baity headline is rightfully drawing ire, the article does make one valid point, that "Seven years of medical school doesn’t prepare you to run a business." In fact, it looks like the article's original title was far less critical, reading "Doctors need to learn to be better managers to run their practices." And what do good managers have in common? They delegate...