Since PartnerMD’s founding in 2003, we’ve grown from one concierge doctor in Richmond, VA, to more than 30 concierge doctors in offices throughout Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia.
Along the way, we’ve learned a thing or two about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to hiring concierge doctors.
What doesn’t work is fairly straightforward — if you’re looking to make a boatload more money as a concierge doc or work far fewer hours, then PartnerMD is not the right fit for you. We’re not luxury medicine or VIP medicine.
We’re focused on using the concierge medicine model to deliver the best care possible to our patients.
What does work deserves a little more explanation. Here are a few key things we look for when hiring concierge doctors at PartnerMD.
Our No. 1 priority is always going to be patient care. Our goal is to help our patients achieve optimal health, and that requires top-notch care for all patients, every day.
This means we’re looking for doctors committed to doing the same — establishing a better relationship with each patient, giving them the tools they need to achieve their goals, and being there for patients when they need us.
As a doctor, this is one of the top benefits of practicing concierge medicine.
Often, we hear this expressed in some form of “I just want to practice medicine the way I envisioned when I entered medical school.”
That, by the way, is not packed schedules and anonymous, overloaded panels; neither is it spending most of the time running a tight-margin business.
We look for doctors who want to spend their time worrying about the health of their patients, not if they are seeing enough patients.
PartnerMD isn’t a destination for doctors looking to enjoy a few years of laidback work as they phase toward retirement. That our doctors might work less is one of the myths about concierge medicine jobs. The truth is that our doctors just work differently.
We have the most success hiring mid-career internists or family physicians. Our candidates from the traditional primary care world tend to have graduated from a U.S. medical school, completed their residency at a top program, and spent a few years practicing in the traditional model.
They tend to call us when they realize that that system is preventing them from being the best doctor they could be. That's when they start looking into how to become a concierge doctor.
A lot of our candidates say they already try to give patients the time concierge medicine affords. Many of them share their desire to develop better relationships with their patients. A thoughtful few express fear of missing something because they can’t slow down to read a chart fully or connect patterns of symptoms.
There is any number of reasons a doctor may look to join concierge medicine and PartnerMD. But at the core of each reason is one overarching theme: they want to be better doctors for their patients.
While concierge medicine has become more affordable over the last 10-15 years, it’s still an investment. People make that investment because they deem it a priority — for their health, their lifestyle, their performance, and their longevity.
At PartnerMD, we take responsibility for that investment very seriously. It’s why we strive to deliver the best care and provide the best experience to patients every day.
Most of our patients are more than happy to keep paying their membership fee because they are getting the kind of top-notch care they want and need. That care includes the pillars of the concierge medicine experience — longer appointments, little to no wait in the lobby, same-day or next-day scheduling, advanced physicals, specialist coordination, etc.
But it also requires a focus on prevention, longevity, and performance. Each patient wants to live as happy and healthy a life as possible, for as long as possible, and it’s our job to help them do that.
So, when we’re looking at hiring concierge doctors, we think in terms of these questions:
Concierge patients don’t just want someone to help them manage compounding health issues as they age.
They want a partner to help them prevent health issues in the first place, so they can live the life they want to live, whether that’s traveling the world with their partner, walking their daughter down the aisle, or holding their grandkids.
Our doctors help them do just that.
If you’re a physician thinking about becoming a concierge doctor and read this blog thinking, “that sounds like me,” then we’d like to get to know you.
Whether you’re an individual doctor looking to make a career change or part of a multi-physician group interested in a different model of care, we have the experience and staffing necessary to make your transition as smooth as possible.
We currently have locations in Baltimore, MD; McLean, VA; Richmond, VA; Midlothian, VA; Short Pump, VA; Greenville, SC; and Atlanta, GA.
We’re open to you joining one of these offices or even launching additional offices in new or existing markets.