01/06/2014    R. Alex Dellinger, DPM

Would You Change Occupations if You Could? (Alan Sherman, DPM)

There are many issues facing podiatry, just as
there are many issues facing medicine in general.
This will be my 15th year in practice. My practice
has 4 doctors now,and I do most of the daily
practice managing such as payroll, paying all the
bills, etc. So on top of seeing patients 5 days a
week, I put a lot of hours in related to my
practice.

I typically see patients 8:30 AM to 5 PM Monday
through Friday. I do surgeries on Wednesdays,
starting usually around 7 AM, and after those are
done, I have the rest of that day off. I also stop
seeing patients around 2 PM on Fridays so I have
time for a long weekend, etc. I never am on call.
I rarely get called from surgery patients, thus my
weekends are most always "free". I have a college
friend who is a family practice physician in a
smaller town 2 hours from me. He takes hospital
admissions at the local hospital pretty much every
other weekend, and sees about 50 patients per day
while he's in the clinic. I make twice what he
does. Would I trade with him? No way.

I have a friend who sells plastic for a large
company. He works his tail off, works out of town
trade shows on weekends, and makes sales calls
regionally all week. I remember when he was
ecstatic when he made $125,000 in one year. I
guarantee you he worked more hours than I did that
year, and I made way more than that. I wouldn't
trade with him either. Are there things I would
want to change about podiatry? Sure. But it
provides a very good living. For that I am very
thankful. There are changes coming to medicine,
but podiatry will survive. We do feet and ankles
better than anyone. That won't change.

R. Alex Dellinger, DPM, Little Rock, AR,
raddpm@yahoo.com

There are no more messages in this thread.