Why only 17 to 20 hours? Do you do something else on the side, or just decided you want more personal time?
I work part-time for several reasons, but mostly because I work-to-live rather than live-to-work. In my spare time I like to mountain bike and go snowboarding amongst other things. My wife also works half-time and we enjoy biking and traveling together. I am also a father of two little girls and do not want to miss their childhood by being at the office all the time.
I live in an area that is famous for its outdoor recreational activities. It is a big sports and leisure community, and as such attracts an unusual number of physicians. Whereas a community this size would normally sustain three podiatrists, we have nine with another on the way. In addition, we have four foot and ankle orthopedic surgeons, so physician saturation is a secondary but real reason for being part-time. I do not believe that any of the podiatrists in this city have full-time hours here.
Working 17 to 20 hours is enough to sustain my practice and to pay the bills. I may work half as many hours as the next guy but my overhead expenses are also half as much and therefore my income remains about average for the state of Oregon.
If you look at the fixed expenses of most practices you'll find that rent and payroll are the two most expensive items, or at least they are near the top of the list.
My two partners and I rotate through an office designed for no more than two doctors at the time, which means we spend less on office space.
By having two of us rotate through the office on any given day means that we can function with minimal support staff. We have a receptionist, a biller, and one medical assistant between the three of us. The way that we have divided up expenses means that I am paying only for two thirds of a single full-time employee.
A solo practitioner would have to generate enough money to cover the payroll of those three employees on his own. If you figure that each employee's wages plus benefits equals approximately $30,000 per year, then that means a solo practitioner would need to generate at least $70,000 per year more than I do in order to cover payroll. Even if a solo provider had only one employee who did everything, he or she would still be paying more for payroll than I am.
Keeping my hours under twenty per week also means that I qualify for part-time malpractice insurance fees. Mine costs 50% of what it would cost a full-time practitioner.
We have several other things that we do to keep our overhead expenses down but I don't want to list them all here. Having low overhead expenses helps us out in this down economy because it takes longer for us to feel any dip in production.
One of my Attendings when I was in Residency told me, "It's not just what you make, but also what you don't spend."