Top 3 Reasons Why Physicians Switch to Concierge Medicine Jobs

More and more primary care doctors are switching to concierge medicine. Though the model was conceived fewer than 25 years ago, there are now more than 12,000 concierge primary care physicians in the United States.

At PartnerMD, we’ve seen similar growth. We started with one doctor in one office in 2003 and now have more than 30 doctors in seven offices. 

In most cases, we hire former traditional primary care physicians who get fed up with not having enough time for their patients and decide it’s time for them to switch to concierge medicine.

Why do physicians switch to concierge medicine? Here are three of the top reasons traditional primary care doctors are becoming concierge doctors.

1. You want to practice medicine the way you originally envisioned.

Traditional primary care features overloaded panels and a reliance solely on insurance reimbursements. It’s 10-minute medicine if you’re lucky, and it forces doctors to rush through 2--35 patients per day and to treat sick patients quickly. There isn’t room on your schedule to do any more than address the immediate symptoms.

One thing we hear from traditional PCPs who are interested in becoming concierge doctors is their “fear of missing something.” They feel so rushed that they’re no longer confident they’re delivering the best care possible.

They fear that maybe they’re going so fast, to get through so many appointments, that they could be missing a life-changing or life-saving health issue.

Traditional primary care doctors often become concierge doctors because it allows them to slow down and devote the proper attention to each and every patient, just like they wanted to when they were wide-eyed and fresh-faced coming out of medical school.

2. You’re tired of running the traditional primary care business.

If you’re a traditional primary care doctor at a small independent practice, you’re not just a doctor. You’re a businessperson, too.

You hire staff, negotiate leases, manage employees, balance books, train new hires, deal with business insurance, plan employee benefits programs, and more.

It’s a lot. And that’s in addition to a 2,300+ patient panel.

At some point, doctors just want to be doctors. They want someone else to run the business so that they can focus on providing medical care.

If you can find the right concierge practice, one with a full-time business team to handle all the operational “stuff,” you can focus on just being a doctor.

3. You are burned out.

Some traditional primary care doctors switch to concierge medicine because they are just plain burned out. A 2022 study found that almost 63% of physicians had at least one symptom of burnout, a number that increased dramatically because of COVID-19.

Traditional primary care doctors see 20-35 patients all day, every day. They spend time on their lunch break and “after hours” returning calls, catching up on notes and charts, and preparing for the next day. Then they go home and come back ready to do it again. All while thinking they might have missed something.

Concierge medicine allows you to slow down and spend more time with fewer patients.

However, a key disclaimer: becoming a concierge doctor doesn’t make your job easier. You see fewer patients, yes, but you put more effort and time into those patients.

And because your patients demand top-notch care and service – that’s what they’re paying for after all – switching to concierge medicine is not guaranteed to fix your burnout. It’s still possible to get overwhelmed.

Concierge Medicine Jobs: Making the Switch

At PartnerMD, we look for primary care doctors interested in switching for the first two reasons (to practice the way they envisioned and because they’re tired of running the business) far more than for the third (burnout).

We’re not looking for doctors who are burned out on providing care. We’re looking for doctors who are burned out on the system that prevents them from providing great care and are ready to be freed to deliver that care every day. Concierge patients have high expectations, and we ourselves have high standards of care.

We love talking to traditional primary care doctors who are as passionate about delivering top-notch preventative primary care to their patients as we are. Sound like you? Visit our website to learn more and fill out a form to get the conversation started.