02/04/2025    Kathleen Neuhoff, DPM

Why Podiatry School Applicants Remain Low (Walter Clark, DPM)

I was so saddened to read Dr. Clark‘s letter. I
wonder if some of his opinions about his
inadequate pay resulted from lack of knowledge
about the cost of running a practice. Quite a few
years ago, I had an associate doctor. I paid her
40% of the gross that she generated and allowed
her to set her own hours and determine how many
patients she would see. She chose to work less
than 30 hours a week and still generated an income
above average for a full-time practitioner at that
time. My own income was approximately 32% of my
gross because I saw more than twice as many
patients and was carrying her. However, I liked
her. She was a good doctor and my patient liked
her so it was perfectly content with that.

After about five years, she came to me and told me
that she thought she should be receiving 90% of
the gross that she generated because it hardly
took me any extra cost to keep her on. I sent her
to my accountant for a day and had them go over
all the cost of the practice and the profit and
all of those things but it did not make any
difference. She was certain that I was taking
advantage of her.

So I released her from a covenant not to compete
so she could set up a practice about a mile and a
half from me, allowed her to take copies of the
records of all the patient she had seen in my
practice, helped her through the process of
developing a business plan to borrow money, and
allow her to work for me for about six months
until she was able to get her own practice up and
going.

During this time, she told multiple doctors that
she was leaving me because I did not pay her
enough. However, after she had left and been in
practice for a few years, she told me that she
wished she had never left because she was working
far more hours and making far less money that she
had with me.

I know there are doctors who take advantage of
young doctors. We have one of those in my
community. However, most of us really try to help
and to be fair. Want the next generation of
podiatrist to succeed. That is why we work with
the residency programs.

If Dr. Clark goes from doctor to doctor without
ever starting his own practice, it could be that
he will believe those doctors are all taking
advantage of him. In fact, they may be treating
him more fairly than he understands.
Most of us realize that the young podiatrist
coming behind us are the future of our profession.
I’m sorry if Dr. Clark has encountered those do
not understand this. I hope he has better luck in
the future.

Kathleen Neuhoff, DPM, South Bend, IN

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