THE CHANGING FORMULA FOR
SUCCESS IN MEDICINE
It used to be that in order to succeed as a
physician, certain characteristics and virtues were
required. A physician must be knowledgeable, not only in
matters regarding his or her own specialty, but also in
general medical issues. A physician needs to be
compassionate, caring, and personable in order to
effectively communicate and relate to their patients and
have their patients open up to them. As a surgeon, a
physician needs to be technically adept and understand
his or her limitations, exercising sound judgment in his
or her decision making. We have all heard of the three
"A's" as the key to a successful practice upon
completing our training and going out into the real
world. These are affability, availability and ability.
Certainly if one possesses all of the above they are
guaranteed to be successful in medicine, right? Well,
not exactly. Along came HMO's and the rules changed. It
was no longer enough to possess all of these desirable
traits. It was now necessary to be business savvy. Many
of us are good doctors, but not enough of us are good in
business. This is not something that is taught in
medical school, and has nothing to do with taking care
of patients. But it does have something to do with
survival. It forces us to be adaptable and to learn new
skills in order to continue to do what we are trained to
do.
Those of us who have mastered all of this will
certainly be successful, right? Well, not exactly. Now
we have one more hurdle to concur. We must be
politically savvy as well. We can no longer sit back and
practice medicine the way that we were taught. The
portrayal of our profession in the beautiful Norman
Rockwell classics is unfortunately a thing of the past.
Without uniting as a group and understanding the
political system and how it affects medicine today, and
without learning how to make the system work favorably
for our profession, we will surely perish. We can no
longer sit back and take the attitude of "let the other
guys get involved". We are the other guys. Each and
every one of us needs to be politically involved. There
is strength in numbers and this is the only way to make
a difference.
On May 15, 2003, New Jersey physicians will again
unite as we have done so in the past. We will unite to
make a difference, as we march for the third time on
Trenton. Family members and staff will join in as we
take part in the largest gathering of doctors in
history. Our goal is to make a difference. To influence
the government in our state to pass tort-reform
legislation which will improve our profession and to
help it to survive. We can, and we must make a
difference.
