By Lois Geller

Forty years ago, Marcus Welby MD, a fictional TV character, was the ideal family doctor: smart, cured most people, pleasant, honest, and loved and respected by everyone.

Being a doctor was great then; nowadays not so much.

This was brought home to me last week during a regular visit to Dr. R, when he pointed to a photo of his two sons, one in medical school, the other a senior in high school

“I hope they both go into the family real estate business,” he said, somewhat disconsolately.

“W-w-what”?

“We push paper,” said Dr. R. “We hire more and more administrative people to handle claim forms and other administrivia which is endless. We get paid a little nothing from many insurance companies. We see more and more patients and spend less and less time with each of them. Plus we’re always vulnerable to lawsuits, and get little respect.”

I’d read something about this medical malaise in The Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago. I dug it up when I got home. “Why Doctors Are Sick of Their Profession” was a long piece in the August 30/31 weekend edition of the Journal. A pullout head caught my eye immediately: “In a survey of 12,000 physicians only 6% described their morale as positive”.

6%!! That’s not Dr. Welby, anymore, and I suspect the situation is going to get a lot worse.

Could marketing help?

I don’t know yet. I’ve just started wondering about it. I do know that there’s already an ocean of medical marketing: OTC drugs and treatments, prescription drugs, equipment from canes and electric wheel chairs to snake-oil-salesman gadgets. Hospitals and clinics advertise a lot as do multi-MD joint practices.

But there’s not a lot of doctor marketing, other than for cosmetic specialists.

It’s a complicated problem, especially for what we now call primary care physicians. (They once were family doctors, then general practitioners or internists.)

One big challenge, as the WSJ article mentioned, is that “… salaries haven’t kept pace with doctor’s expectations. In 1970, the average inflation-adjusted income of general practitioners was $185,000, In 2010 it was $161,000, despite a near doubling of patients that doctors see a day.”

Maybe doctors can’t afford marketing. Maybe there’s no point in marketing because they just don’t have time to handle any more patients. Or, worst of all, maybe they’re swamped by bureaucrats and regulators from insurance companies and various levels of government.

And, most likely, maybe they have a business challenge that needs to be resolved first.

Doctors in private practice are up against a wall and unless they can fix things somehow, they’re going to disappear. Who in his right mind want to work like this? They’re going to have to reinvent their role. It’ll be a challenge and selling their new way of working will require marketing of the highest order.

Meanwhile my sciatic nerve was acting up

Dr. R sent me to a physical therapist who had helped me years ago. She had just opened a new practice and her office was sparkling as was her receptionist.

As I relaxed with a hot, moist blanket on my back, I thought that she needs to focus on her USP, Unique Selling Proposition. Not long ago, her waiting room was filled with very sore Jai-Lai players. Then the Fronton closed and she lost all that business and had to reinvent herself.

Could she, nonetheless, still position her business with this: “I relieved the pain of Jai Alai players for years, now I’m available to help you.”