Practice Management...are you involved??

: Greetings,

I'm interested in working with my SO in managing his practice. Any advice (other than DON'T DO IT)??

Diane

[DCJenn]

I have no advice for you other than to be sure that you can fathom the thought of spending 24/7 together!!

Jenn

I think it depends on your situation. I've seen it work beautifully (a solo practice FP with his wife running the office) and I've seen it fail miserably (4 Drs in the office, the wife of one in the office--staff problems, accusations of nepotism and favoritism, one Dr. left the practice, you name it.) Decorating my husband's office and planning social events for the staff is about as involved as I get in the practice, and my husband likes it that way. And he and I have enough sources of conflict without working together on top of it. It's not for me, but you may do fine with it.

Eliz

In my DW intern year she did a rotation in an office that was also one of her professors from medical school. His wife was the Office Manager in his peds practice. We knew a few of the nurses and the they couldn't stand her. But I suppose someone has to be the one to crack the whip on the help, since the Dr would be busy with patients all day.
As far as what was seen in public with their relationship, it seemed pretty good. She was also more dialed into the "medical community" when social gathering and also daily visits with drug reps.

I think it depends on your attitude and situation. My DH's brother is an MD whose wife is the manager. She is very laid back and was fortunate enough to help pick the staff that they hired. He just left a bigger practice and went solo. My DH and I have discussed the possiblilty of me working in his office where ever he ends up even if its part time. I've seen a lot of wives who run the office and are the biggest crabs and are obviously only there to keep an eye on their husband because of trust issues. If you're there because you actually have your spouses best intrests in mind and just enjoy working together, it can work! You have to have a positive attitude going in and if you decide you dont like it you'll at least know enough about what is going on to help him find adequit help to replace you.

Dont do It!

I agree with Eliz. The closest I would ever want to be involved is planning social events and helping make the place visually appealing. I have the medical background to do it but have seen it go wrong in many practices. I would probably like to be in on the interviewing process for hiring a good office manager. Other than that I just would like to be known as the wife not the bad guy or control freak