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The solo medical practitioner is an increasing rarity in a world of "doc-in-a-box" centers and complex managed care health systems, but several San Jose doctors and nurses say they wouldn't do it any other way.
"For me, I was really excited by the whole idea," says David Safir, who celebrates 27 years on his own as a San Jose pediatrician.
But the vast majority of doctors don't have the same entrepreneurial spirit as he. They just want to take care of patients, not administer back-office billing practices. Mostly new doctors, daunted by managed care systems and marketing themselves, join existing group practices, clinics or hospitals.
"A lot of people coming into practice now are just intimidated by the whole idea of setting up their own business," Dr Safir says. 'A lot of them struggle. They find there's a real skill to running a business and they don't have much interest in it."
General surgeon Amy Gonsier is perched to take over her retiring partner's well-established San Jose practice. Working with him for 16 years, she has been learning the administrative end of things and will join with a handful of other doctors to manage on-call times.
What Dr. Gonsier says she's most excited about is managing her practice so she can perform more of the kind of surgeries she enjoys.
"Some people go into medicine so they have job security," Dr. Gonsier says. "They teach you how to be bossy [in medical school] but not how to be a boss."
Each of these doctors has had to learn a few business fundamentals to set up their own practice. They had to market themselves as well.
"When I started, people mostly paid...