Does Your Doctor Travel for Work?

Does your doctor travel for work? This is the new normal. Why? There’s a doctor shortage, and it’s getting worse. I’ll write another blog on this soon. That means doctors need to cover more territory than in the past. The increased use of telemedicine also makes it possible to work in multiple places at the same time. 

Are you a doctor who is considering traveling for work? Are you curious about what that’s like?

I can only share my experience, but it isn’t unique. How do I manage this? I’m the medical director of two clinics. I have two teams to manage, two groups of patients to oversee and care for, and two homes. My house is in North Carolina, and my family lives there. I also have an apartment close to my clinic in Atlanta, which is paid for by my company. It’s furnished with rented furniture, so moving was minimal. I keep some food, clothes, and toiletries there. I brought some pictures from home and bought a smart TV with my accounts loaded. I only bought some basic kitchen stuff, a couple of lamps, and a rug. I meet daily with each clinical team to review the patients of the day, and we also communicate by Slack, email, and in the electronic medical record. I use Google Meet to meet with the teams, who also may have some members who work from home. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants can see patients in person for small procedures when I’m not there, and I can review the results. They can also do routine physical exams, pap smears, and ultrasounds. I also batch our in vitro fertilization cases. This is pretty easy to do because IVF cycles are programmed with medication to get an optimal result. The keys are regular and frequent communication with the teams and with the patients, and a flexible mindset. 

How does this affect my family? I’ll be honest, it can be hard. When I first started traveling to Atlanta, my husband was an airline pilot and worked Wednesday to Wednesday, every other week. So I would travel to Atlanta with our cat, and we both worked the same days. In between, we were off on the same days. This schedule was great! When we were apart, we were both busy and working, and home was almost like a vacation for both of us. At that time, I was only part-time and could take off work between trips to Atlanta. 

Things changed, and suddenly, my husband was working weekdays and I was the only doctor covering Atlanta. Our Charlotte office was also getting ready to open. So I was working full-time, and I had to travel for two weeks at a time to cover Atlanta. When I was home, I worked long hours by telehealth from home. I also had the big project of planning the opening of the Charlotte office, recruiting staff, marketing the practice, and starting to see those patients. That was much harder and unsustainable as a workload. So I made some other changes. I shortened the IVF batch period to a week for each clinic, so the patients were divided between the two batches. This gave us more flexibility, and each batch was less intense. I have the same manager for both offices, which streamlines communication and management of both teams. It also makes it possible to do things the same way in both places, providing efficiency in training the staff and in creating workflows. Currently, I’m away from home four nights a month, which isn’t bad. I work from home one day a week when I’m not in batch, and when I need to, I take 1-2 Fridays a month as administrative days to catch up and do marketing visits. 

The keys to traveling as a doctor are to know your limits and set boundaries. Having a place to live that’s yours is important, and your practice should pay for this.  It’s very hard to live out of a suitcase in a hotel, and it only makes sense if you go to multiple places. But if you travel to the same place again and again, a home away from home is key. Communication is also important. Communication channels for your team are the key to caring for patients and keeping things running. Communication with your family is also crucial. My husband and I had a hard time when he was suddenly home every night, and I was gone two weeks at a time. When I was home, I was holed up in an office upstairs, and he was coming and going for work, sometimes overnight. We looked at our schedules and both made some adjustments. And finally, have fun! I enjoyed fulfilling a lifelong dream to live “over the store” like in stories about Parisiennes! I enjoyed getting to learn about a new city, with local restaurants, museums, shopping, and sights. Decorating a girly apartment was enjoyable. It was fun to spend time with relatives and friends who live in Atlanta and deepen my relationships with them. And in a long marriage, sometimes a (short) amount of time away is nice too. Think full control of the clicker, eating the foods you like that your partner hates, or setting the thermostat where you want it. 

In short, traveling as a doctor is completely manageable if you have negotiated the right support from your company and talk openly and frequently with your family. To negotiate better, I recommend downloading my guide, Doctoring Your Job.