YO PAULIE, WHY DID YOU LEAVE MEDICINE?
That’s a question I get asked all the time. My answer is usually something like this…
I did not leave medicine. I still see patients… Just part-time… As in one (maybe two if the proverbial they can talk me into it) urgent care shifts per month. The rest of my (work) time is mediating, arbitrating, lawyering, and doing utilization review. So, I did not leave medicine.
What you really want to know is why I went part-time and followed other career paths, and my answer is as simple as it is true:
BECAUSE IT BECAME MORE IMPORTANT TO MAKE PATIENTS HAPPY THAN BETTER.