Have any of you opened up a medical practice from scratch? If so, can you tell me about that experience? How long did it take for you to make a salary?
Over the last few months, since my last post, I found an experienced physician with an already-established patient base (only enough patients for her, not for me as well). She was looking to expand her office to a new location and to transfer patient care there. (She had plenty of experience with medical office start-up.)
Anyway, she promised me a starting salary of $45K a year even without seeing patients and future partnership if I quit my prior physician job and joined her. I agreed, and we're now together in a new medical office. The problem is that she has continued her patient base, but the patients aren't coming for me. (I see maybe one or two new patients a day. Before I quit my prior job, I was seeing 25+).
What is coming are all of the bills. Rent for the building, receptionist, etc, need to be paid first. Because of the lack of patient volume and reimbursement rates, despite various advertising campaigns, there's not enough money for our salaries. We're both going broke.
I've spoken to her about looking for a part-time job on the side so that I can continue to eat, have a roof over my head, etc. She won't allow it, stating we now have to "work together" and "stay in the office as much as possible" until the patient base gets reestablished for both of us. She took out a 5-year loan to move to the new location, and she expects me to help her pay it back as quickly as possible.
I feel cheated... like I was lured me into her dream of a new medical office with the promise of partnership and salary... only to have life become difficult for both of us.
Not sure what to do next!
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