Grey’s Anatomy on TV vs Reality of Medicine

 Iron DPC is successful for the simple reason that we are the best practice in our area, not just for patients but for the providers that work here. The truth of the matter is that working for most medical practices and especially corporations is awful, leading many young and bright providers to question if they made a mistake going into enormous debt and spending their youth studying. I think part of the burnout problem is that allopathic medicine doesn’t help chronic conditions which is the majority of problems patients face. Even the most dogmatic “evidence-based-medicine” conventionalist will feel the burnout eventually as they see their patients get sicker and sicker with the allopathic approach. 

This is another reason no one wants to work in conventional primary care. The expected primary care provider shortage by 2036-2037 is expected to be about 80,000 physicians. Patients on insurance in brevard county often can’t get in to see primary care for 2-6 months due to the wait times. The PA profession was created to fill this gap, but neither does the PA want to do allopathic primary care. Most PAs are hired into surgical positions or ICU/ERs. 

Everyone was inspired by watching Grey’s Anatomy on TV and perhaps thought life in the fast lane would be great. The reality of surgery, ICU and ER is that most of the patients are there for entirely preventable reasons. That diabetic with ketoacidosis in room 32 in the ER would have had a fasting insulin of 16, 20 years ago but never knew about it so never started lifting weights and eating an ancestral diet. That leg wound in OR 3 because he bumped into his couch and is now requiring surgical debridement and multiple antibiotics was because of years of insulin resistance and obesity. That grandma, age 72 who spontaneously broke her hip and fell and hit her head and is in the ICU with a brain bleed never received hormone replacement therapy and was never told to strength train and we know that even if she recovers she has a 50% chance of dying within the next 5 years after a hip fracture. All of these patients seen day after day damages the provider’s psyche and health.