Is starting your own family practice still viable?

[UnfortunateTomato]

Hello! Do any of you have your own family practice or know someone who started one? If so, would you mind sharing your experiences? Thank you!

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[deleted480308]

Hello! Do any of you have your own family practice or know someone who started one? If so, would you mind sharing your experiences? Thank you!

A number of people start direct primary care each year, check out interviews with atlasmd

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

I started my own back in 2015

 

[Robbin]

Not in family, but in friend circle yes there are few fellows who are doing well.

 

[FrustratedFamDoc]

Tough to do but possible. Current climate has most new grads graduating with huge student loans. Add to that family pressure of a spouse that has graciously followed you through the dog days of residency and the onus to make hay now is quite high. You've got student loan creditors knocking to the tune of at least $3k/month and you're ready to move out of your apartment and start actually living.

Starting your practice from scratch means a negative income for at least several months while you're covering overhead costs. Usually, this means a side gig moonlighting to cover living expenses. All of this equates to you typically working HARDER than you did as a resident. Your spouse/family wants to finally be able to spend time with you and this is a pretty tough sell. Job A is guaranteeing you 250k/yr for 2 years with health insurance, retirement plan and job security. Starting your own practice guarantees nothing.

Debt is the driver in all of this. Without student loan debt, you can cut your expenses to a minimum and the starting your own practice becomes much more feasible.

 

[TableMD]

My mentor in med school set up his own practice and really broke down the template to make that a fun, doable task.

I plan on practicing outpatient primary care abd sports med, and for the sports piece I need an ultrasound, treadmill, and some other specialty items that I did not want to pick up personally. That made me go with a larger group practice. I also want to have colleagues in an office to chat with about patients/medicine/etc. I think I would be kind of lonely in a one person practice, but I see the allure.

 

[phospho]

classmates have done it (i.e. teaming up together to come up with a practice)... we were a pretty tight class, so I wasn't surprised at all...

 

[QueenJames]

DPC mane. It's the way to go...

 

[VenusinFurs]

I dream of this p often but I think viability depends a lot on your circumstances. It seems to me you probably need significant savings and a really high tolerance for risk.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

I dream of this p often but I think viability depends a lot on your circumstances. It seems to me you probably need significant savings and a really high tolerance for risk.

You only really need savings if you either can't/won't moonlight in the early stages to help with income and/or don't want/can't get a loan to start up a practice.