Dr. Vince Leone describes the mental and physical warning signs that tell a doctor it's time to hire an associate. He distinguishes between physical exhaustion and the deeper mental strain that leads to burnout, drawing on his own repeated brushes with the edge without crossing it. When the practice becomes a relentless grind, he says, it's time to share the load.
And so that was an indicator that I saw that is like, all right, it is time to bring on an associate doctor. Not only— so we talked about physical stressors on the body, but what about the doctor that just is maybe mentally close to burnout? I have been there a few times in my career. I do not think I have ever been to a point where I can say I was completely burned out, where I am like, I am just done with this. But I've been borderline burned out over the years several times, and I think if a doctor is in that stage in their practice where they're like, this is really a grind, I'm mentally, physically, emotionally, whatever, getting close to burnout,
