Four physicians shared their biggest career takeaways with Becker's:
Amit Mirchandani, MD. Texas Health Surgery Center Rockwall: The field of medicine has recruited some of the brightest minds to become physicians. These minds are unfortunately becoming tired with redundant paperwork, peer to peers, phone calls, insurance tactics, staff management and documentation complexities. These weights have recently caused many bright minds to opt out of independent practices and choose the path of becoming "corporatized physicians."
We need more and more young, bright doctors to bet on themselves and open independent practices. Doctors must evolve from competing with one another to helping create a strong interconnected ecosystem. Help each other by sharing better management systems and technologies that have worked for each of us individually. Some hospital systems and insurance companies don’t want to hear this, but independent doctors are great for healthcare.
David Bumpass, MD. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (Little Rock): I have greatly enjoyed being part of a growing team of incredibly dedicated and capable health care providers — nurses, mid-level providers and surgeon colleagues. Seeing how a team approach can achieve substantial improvements in preoperative optimization, complication and cost reduction, and quicker postoperative recovery has been exceptionally rewarding.
Daniel Gittings, MD. Orthopedic Specialty Institute (Orange, Calif.): Stay humble and be kind to all you meet. Everyone has a unique perspective that you can learn from. No person is an island, and it takes a team to provide excellent healthcare. I am grateful to have the opportunity to have trained and worked with a diverse group of people that challenge me to be a better surgeon, doctor and person each and every day.
Edward DelSole, MD. Geisinger Musculoskeletal Institute (Scranton, Pa.): The biggest takeaway of my career so far has been the critical role of teamwork and leadership. As an early practicing surgeon, I have learned rapidly the importance of assembling strong, supportive clinical teams in order to create a successful practice. Residents and fellows should be actively learning how to build and lead teams in their office and in their operating room. Young surgeons should actively seek to collaborate clinically and academically with colleagues inside and outside of their organizations to make an excellent surgical plan and in some cases execute it well. A successful spine practice has unique and complicated features, and surgeons have to be able to rely on all the people around them in order to provide the highest quality patient care.