I'm sorrry, but I would not recommend that you follow the advice of podpal, since she can not speak from the experience of someone who has a "full spectrum" practice.
Please do a search on this site, and I will reiterate again and again and again, that although our practice does offer major reconstructive surgery to our patients, it is NOT, yes, it is NOT our "money maker".
Surgical training is crucial for dozens of reasons, and it is extremely important for you to be able to offer your patients the full spectrum of conservative and surgical options.
However, when you have an extremely busy office, performing surgery is NOT always the most profitable aspect of a practice, despite podpal's comments.
She keeps pointing out how great it is to go to the hospital and perform a surgery and get the big bucks. What she doesn't realize is that surgery doesn't always pay "big bucks" and that when you are in the O.R., you are not in your office generating income. I've done this before, but I'll do it again;
-You must take into consideration your travel time to and from the hospital or surgical center
-You must take into consideration the time spent doing the pre-op work in the facility prior to getting into the O.R., such as meeting with the patient, checking the chart, speaking with the family, reviewing films, labs,etc.
-You must consider the possibility of your case being "bumped" or delayed due to the O.R. running behind schedule or having an emergency case delay your elective case
-You must consider the actual time it takes to perform your case
-You must consider the time FOLLOWING the surgery to dictate the op report, finish up the post op paperwork, review instructions with the patient in recovery (after the patient is coherent enough to understand), talk to the family to let them know everything is OK, etc.
-You must remember that included in the fee for surgery is a "global" period, meaning that depending on the surgical procedure, you can not bill or receive any additional payment for follow up visits for 30, 60, 90 days. That in essence "dilutes" the surgical payment when you break it down per visit.
Naturally, each insurance company pays differently. A while ago, I performed a subtalar arthrodesis (NOT arthroreisis) and I was paid a whopping $348, with a global fee of 90 days.
If I performed a permanent ingrown nail procedure on that same patient (a "P & A") with the same insurance company, I would have received $238. The ingrown nail procedure would take me literally 3-4 minutes after I anesthetized the toe, and I wouldn't have to leave my office and there is either no global period or a 10 day global period.
YOU do the math to see which is more profitable.
Don't get me wrong. I love performing surgery, and it's a very important part of our practice. I perform surgery when it's indicated.
It's a shame that podpal has no surgical training, but it's also a fallacy that the only way to make money is via surgery. As I've also stated on this site, we have a very large practice, and although every member of our practice is ABPS certified, one of my partners has stopped performing surgery and he is CONSISTENTLY the top producer in our practice. And as I've also stated, despite the amount of surgery I perform, my numbers aren't even close to his and he does NOT perform ANY surgery.
Getting back to the original question regarding income potential in 7 years.......there is no way to predict or guess what's going to happen. I believe everything will be okay, and that you should simply worry about your grades and doing the best you can at the present time.
Work hard, obtain a good residency, be prepared to work hard in practice and treat your patients honestly and ethically and you WILL earn a decent living and will be above the curve.
There is a "sticky" on this site that the moderators chose to keep as a permanent post that I wrote a while back regarding DPM income. You may want to take a look at it, since it addresses some issues I believe are important.
Surgical training IS imperative, but in my opinion, most successful practices are those that provide the full spectrum of services, and it's the rare practice that derives the majority of it's revenue from surgery.
