Abstract
Part of the American Dream involves home ownership and its claim to a stronger investment in one’s family, neighborhood, and community. The medical version of that dream is called private practice. Almost overnight, it seems, we have awakened to the reality that most primary care physicians are now employed by large corporations or hospital networks. What does this mean for our patients and the practice of medicine? Did patients lose a sense of ownership when insurance companies began to speak on their behalf? Have boutique practices, Internet sales, and online information banks restored their control? This essay explores the fundamental question, “Does ownership matter?” and suggests what we all can do to retrieve paradise lost.
- Family practice
- social responsibility
- physician’s practice patterns
- physician-patient relations
- medical practice management
- Received for publication June 11, 2008.
- Revision received September 5, 2008.
- Accepted for publication September 29, 2008.
- © 2009 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.
