Dr. Tea (00:01)

Practicing medicine without insurance is possible. Imagine a private practice where you get to see your best patients every day providing medical services you truly enjoy, all without the hassle of insurance. My name is Dr. Tea Nguyen, and I'm a recovering specialist who was completely burned out from insurance-based medicine. I pivoted into direct care, where patients pay me directly for my medical services and have never looked back. 

If you're a private practice owner or planning to become one,who's looking to be free of the grind of insurance and your craving simplicity, efficiency, and connection with patients, you are in the right place. This podcast will help you map out your exit plan and uncover the mindset needed to thrive in today's economy. Welcome to the Direct Care Podcast for Specialists.

I want to welcome Dr. Shawn Johnson, who is an orthopedic surgeon and self-proclaimed non-traditional orthopedist. So welcome to the podcast.

Dr. Shawn Johnson (01:03)

Hello, thanks for having me.

Dr. Tea (01:05)

I'm so excited to talk to you because, well, I love talking to everybody, but orthopedics is such a broad category of things that you can do, but oftentimes it's confined to the walls of the office clinic. And so we were just briefly talking before we got to recording about what your practice looks like. And if you'd like to share where you came from, because I have your note here that says things didn't look so great. And then you decided to take matters into your own hands to open your practice.

Give us a little bit of a background as to how life looked like for you before you had your direct care practice.

Dr. Shawn Johnson (01:40)

So ⁓ I am born and raised Houston, Texas. I live just outside of Houston now. Did all the things, school, college, medical school. I was actually ⁓ in the military, in the army, and served almost 10 years as a staff orthopedist. Decided to resign my commission and did a fellowship in Louisiana in sports ortho.

I was out there for about four years, four or five years, but it was just me, like literally me, no family, no... So every time I looked up, I was coming back and forth to Houston to spend time with my family, spend time with my friends. So I decided to relocate to Houston thinking, well, it's Houston. It should be pretty easy to find a job. know, huge medical center, et cetera, et cetera. That wasn't necessarily the case, but I did find, I started doing locums pretty...pretty heavily during that time that I was searching. And I contracted with one organization that I thought was gonna be really positive, but it was not. I've worked for them for six months, I got paid one time. So that was no good. It was no good. 

And it was just a lot of things I wasn't used to coming from the military where things are really structured and you know you didn't have to necessarily worry about some things so you come out into civilian world in your life okay it should be the same I get up and I go to work I do what I'm supposed to do I should get a paycheck etc etc I get in any trouble blah blah blah that didn't happen so I moved away from that situation started back to doing a lot of locums just so happens that that situation also coincided with me getting married getting a house, all of that. to not be compensated for my time for six months, just sent everything into a bit of a tailspin. Found another employed, now employed physician out at a rural hospital about 25 minutes from where I live. And I was there for two and a half years. 

They didn't have an orthopedic program prior to me. So that had been about 10 or 12 years since they had had an orthopedist in house. basically stood that department up and we were told we were doing really well. I was solo orthopedic surgeon at the time, ⁓ but we amassed a fairly decent patient panel, about 1200 patients or something like that. We were getting busier. It usually takes about three years for an orthopedic practice to kind of get of going regularly scheduled, know, surgeries, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. People figuring out where you are, who you are, if they like you, you know, all that type of stuff. So at about two and a half years in, unbeknownst to not just myself, but some of the other physicians that were organic to that facility, they had not been managing their finances very well at that hospital. So the hospital was bought out.

And we didn't know about it. We meaning the hospital staff didn't know about it until it happened. And the hospital that bought that hospital out basically came through and just gutted the staff. I got a letter in the mail that basically said, no, we don't need your services anymore, Dr. Johnson. that gave me, that was in November of 20 when that happened and I was like how do you how do you not you know what happened to we were doing well we're getting busier etc etc etc etc so at that point I said you know if this is what it's gonna be like for me to get up and go to somebody else's organization and work and do what I'm supposed to do good patient satisfaction scores, know, the whole nine, and I still have the possibility to wake up and not have a job, I probably should be doing something for myself. Because if I'm going to be placed in that situation, at least I can turn around and look at myself in the mirror and go, what did you do? What did you do and what did you do? 

I we didn't get any answers. There was no, no reasons, you know, explained to us. So yeah, that's how I ended up at I'll be 49 tomorrow. So I ended up deciding, okay, I'm just going to, I'm going to go into business for myself. And I still thought that was going to look like, you know, brick and mortar, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, you know, big fancy X-ray, you know, and then I started looking at the financial part of it and I was like, Oh no, this is going to be too much too expensive.

You know, I didn't want to get a huge jumbo loan. I didn't want to do anything like that. And kind of in the process of me determining what I was going to do, people that I had treated previously were like, well, where's Dr. Johnson? You know where she landed? Where can we find her? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. ⁓ So I decided to say, well, you know, I can see you. It's just that I'm to have to either come to you or come to your

I see patients at their physical therapy facilities. I see them at their primary care doctor's offices. I see them at home. I see them at assisted living locations. And then I said, you know, well, that keeps your overhead like way, way, way, way, way down without, you know, not having a building and in rent or mortgage or whatever, whatever it builds this, that, and the third. So I said, well, maybe I'll just do this for a little while. And then the little while turned into no.

I could probably do this and it actually makes a difference. These patients again don't understand people in general don't understand. You go see patients where they are. I say yes. For me all I need is four walls and a door. You know to see a patient to a certain extent. Most of what we do most of what I do is a lot of education for patients.

I had to have a pretty decent mindset shift, meaning I don't take calls anywhere. You know, so not getting that type of ortho anymore. I deal with a lot of chronic problems, a lot of sub-acute things, a lot of non-surgical things. And I still do surgery, but I contract and I get my surgical fix that way. You know, I do locums. I get my surgical fix that way.

But my practice, my private patients are typically those that don't necessarily want surgery, don't necessarily need it, but they still need orthopedic care, injections, education, physical therapy orders, occupational therapy orders, this, this, this, this. And a lot of my patients are older. only accept, the only insurance I've set is I accept it's traditional Medicare. That's it. Everybody else's fee for service. And the reason I continue to accept traditional Medicare is because my patient demographic, a lot of 65 and up, and a lot of them are not able to, especially where I live, I live more rural. So a lot of them are not able to necessarily get to a good orthopedist or anything like that. So I felt I didn't want to leave those people behind.

So that's the only group of insured patients that I treat are traditional Medicare. This is little bit easier for me to, although reimbursement is not great, there's not a lot of hassle with traditional Medicare ⁓ as far as getting things done for your patient versus some of the commercial insurances. So that's me. It didn't expect for it to be this way, but now I'm happy that I haven't had to pigeonhole myself in a building, you have to come to me, that type of thing. And it's really different. People are like, you do what? I'm like, well, if you think about it, in my military background, combat tours, things like that, you can practice medicine pretty much anywhere to a certain extent. Now, I have privileges at several… places here in the Houston area, ambulatory surgery center, hospitals. So if you need to have surgery, sure, do that. most of my patients, and even in a brick and mortar building, seven out of 10 people that come to you are not looking to have anything done, don't need anything done. 

They just want to know why they hurt. Am I crazy? I'm like, no ma'am, you're not crazy. You have bone on bone arthritis.

 this is what we can do or this is what we cannot do. And now that I have my own time, I could spend that time educating my patients on what they have, educating their family members that may accompany them or maybe at home with them when I go back, about what's going on and the different options from conservative all the way down to more aggressive. And that for me has been more fulfilling than any any other Practice setting I've been in. I'll say that just more. I just feel better about it at the end of the day. Better about what I've done at the end of the day even though it's not as predictable as previous work settings were.

Dr. Tea (12:07)

You were telling us about how you went from job to job and they just kind of, there was just always something at the end of that. And I think a lot of us doctors don't know that there's another way or don't feel that it's viable or we just, we're just simply never taught to run a business. And you had mentioned that your mindset had to shift in order to have what you have today. So how did you, finally step out of the employment situation and decided to do a mobile clinic. Because I think that's amazing. I think a lot of doctors who are burning out or burned out, we want flexibility. We want control in our time. And we want to do it with dignity without having to sell snake oil to people. We just want good old medical care, right? We just want good relationships. What was the mindset shift you had? that helped you get there or get there where you are today.

Dr. Shawn Johnson (13:07)

Well, I had a coach and when I first hired her, we first started working together, should say, it's probably a better way to put that. I literally started working with her so she could give me instructions on how to stand my practice up. Not necessarily the mindset shift part. I was like, okay, work, we do it, this is how, you know, and she actually slowed that process down for me because she said, Dr. Shawn, you're going to have to figure out why you're doing this, this, this, what's gonna be the mental hurdle that you're gonna have to get over, things that I hadn't thought about yet. Hadn't thought about, I was just trying to figure out how to do this from a business standpoint. Never mind the feelings, mind all of that, but she slowed the process down for me and has she not done that? I can see where when

process was getting really tough, where I would have been like, you know what, I'm just gonna go get a job. Just gonna go get a job. But I was able to reflect on the lessons that she made me learn about why I wanted to do what I was doing, why I felt stuck, what I was looking to get out of it, and all those, the intangibles, the stuff that you don't realize are so super important because they're

You're just not anything you can grasp. not anything you can put your hands on. It's not put these two in office. It's not checking your hand or check your deposit or whatever, whatever. It's how you feel about process that you're getting ready to undertake. And if you were to talk to her now, she would tell me, I'd be like, what about all the patients that have insurance? What about them?

Am supposed to just abandon them? And she said, Dr. Shawn, you're not abandoning anyone. You're offering your services in a different manner. She's like, you have to think about it. What's important to people is what's important to people. You can do whatever you want to do. It can be free. If they don't want to drive across town, it doesn't matter.

So she helped me to understand that if you aren't providing those services the way that they want them, either they're gonna flex to what you are offering, you're gonna find somebody else to see. And you just have to be okay with that. You're not failing them, you're just sticking to what you've now chosen to do. And that was hard for me because I was very...

But what about the patients that I thought, what about, what about, what about? And she had to me with that. She was like, you know, you have to think about it. What happens if say, even in your life, you used to go in one place and then that place is not available anymore. What do you do? Go find another place. She says, see, that's what happens. So I did have to have coaching, but not for the reasons I thought I needed the coaching. She made it so that I understood my why.

And it definitely came in handy because there were several, several times throughout the process. I was like, you know what? This is just go get a job. Let me just go get a Just go get a job. I don't want to do all the rest of this stuff. This is a headache. Things don't move very quickly, you know, and you go from a certain, a certain income to nothing essentially. ⁓ so that in itself is tough. But then like now I look back on it.

And even though I'm not nearly where I was as far as being employed, you know, on an income basis, like day in day out, I just, feel so much better about what I'm doing. The burnout, sometimes we, you know, burnout has become one of, you that word that like everybody uses nowadays, but most of us are burning out, I believe, on the intangibles.

but we don't take the time to figure out like what exactly is that? Yes, it's the notes, but that's tangible. Yes, it's the, you know, somebody telling me that I have to, I only get four weeks vacation per, but that's tangible. The moral, what I call the moral injury that you walk around with when you know you're not able to provide your patients with what you should be providing them. You know, you're not able to sit down with them for 30 minutes when they need, you know.

You can only sit with them for 15 when they need 30 or you know anything like that That's the stuff that I think we pack around and that's what's like Because the paperwork doesn't go anywhere When you open your own, you know, it doesn't go anywhere still they're still there. You still got to do it. Maybe we as ⁓ Owners we can decide how we're gonna do that Make things a little easier for us, but that Those things don't leave

when you open your own practice. If anything, it's replaced by the business part of it. We're not just going to work to be a physician. Now you have to do the business part too. So that can burn you out if you don't know why you're doing it or why you set yourself up to do this. Because it was a conscious decision made by me to get out here and do this. So I can only blame myself.

If things are not going the way that I want them to, you know, want them to go. And that's still to this day, I have to look back and say, okay, why am I, this is why I'm here. I chose this. And, but if she had not slowed that process down for me, I probably, I don't think I would probably be here right now had I not from the beginning, didn't jump into, and that was, I worked with her for a year. The first three months were easily mindset exercises and, you know, talking through things and scenarios and things like that.

That was the way I was able to conquer that.

Dr. Tea (19:27)

It's tricky as coaches. We show up as saying, hey, you can open your practice, but the real ⁓ software ⁓ download is how you handle those hurdles because business ownership doesn't get easier. It's how you manage it. And I'm so grateful that you're sharing that because a lot of people just want to go out there and just be given the instructions and just do the thing and see the success. through those

challenges that we are inevitably going to have. If we can't stand up to like, why is this important to do to succeed then yeah, direct care or any business model, even employment may not work with the same mindset with the same, what I like to say the software, you you've got a PC computer, it has certain applications, you've got a MacBook, it has a different application, I like to correlate.

Insurance model is the PC. It's the old school. You the new school is the MacBook. You got to get the new software to get things to run smoothly. Because if you function with the old software, you're going to have hiccups. It's going to be worse. You're going to wish you woke up to a check every two weeks, but you sell your time for that. You you lose time, you lose your autonomy, you live with that moral injury that you're not doing the best for your patient because you've compromised your values for that security. So with that,

How did you find your coach or yeah, how did you decide what kind of coach was right for you, I guess?

Dr. Shawn Johnson (20:57)

Okay, so my couch is a direct care endocrinologist in Savannah, Georgia, Dr. Abby. So she was, someone said when I put it out there, when I was like up to here with it, I was like, you know what, can't do this anymore. Just gonna open my own practice. They said, well, you are too, she's a specialist. She does some small procedures in her office, like a ⁓ umpseyonggata.

know, biopsies, thyroid, know, stuff like that. And someone said, you should probably reach out to Dr. Abby. And I was like, okay, you know, sure. So reached out to her and she was new in her coaching journey. ⁓ Her practice had been up for a couple of years, I think already. And her situation was very different from mine. She transitioned.

She had a controlled transition to her practice versus me. was just like, okay, I don't have a job now. What am I gonna do? And when I started working with her and I'm a firm believer in everything happens for a reason. So I was happy, even though I hadn't worked with another coach before, I was happy that for the reasons I spoke about earlier, that she slowed me down. She was just like, slow down. Let's deal with this first.

And I'm guessing coaches learn that like I've never, I have zero interest in being a coach. But I'm guessing coaches learn to step back from whatever a client is bringing to you. It's like, okay, let's figure out where we need to start. I know what you're asking for, but let's make sure whatever we do is going to matter for the long haul. ⁓ So yeah, I found her. didn't do a big search or anything like that. Someone recommended her to me and it worked out.

Dr. Tea (22:55)

It totally makes sense to work with somebody who has done direct care because we all go through the exact same questions. The idea of abandoning patients. hear this. Every doctor says that they don't want to leave their patients behind. Doctors say it feels really weird to ask for money when, you know, insurance should cover it and all the things. So that's such a great move on your behalf because I think that sets you up for the rest of your career. It's not just this little thing that we did in a blip of time.

It's an eternity in our programming and our working. So from here, you've had your direct care practice. It looks very flexible. You're doing things via telehealth. You've got mobile visits, which I think is incredibly valuable. And you said you also do work on the side as well, contract work.

Dr. Shawn Johnson (23:43)

I some work, I work with a contract with a workers comp clinic. You know, tons of surgery out of that. I also do some work with a personal injury clinic, but everything is contracted. And for me, and I do locums still, I'm trying to slow down on the locums because I prefer to be at home. But until these other things get busier, then of course you do locums, you know, to make

to the ends meet, because the ends still need to meet. don't care. I'm not having to be out of town nearly as much as I was. So I think just over the next, hopefully, year, I can transition from having to go out of town as my practice here gets busier, et cetera, et cetera. Another thing I had to look at is for the first year, year and a half, I felt really

I don't want say defeat it, but I was like, my gosh, my private practice doesn't have, it's not busy at all, et cetera, et And somebody said, no, you're busy. And I do everything in the name of my practice. So I contract in the name of Austin County Orthopedics, and my parent company is Intuition Orthopedics. So I contract in that name. So it's like, no, don't look at it like that. Don't look at it like your private patient, it's just so tiny.

You are, you are just, your practice is multifaceted. You do this, you do this, you do this, you do this, you do this. Your private patient was just a part of it because I was really feeling like this isn't working. You know, I don't have a big patient panel of my own, et cetera, et cetera. And somebody just literally another mindset shift. Think about it, Shawn, you're busy every day doing something in the name of Austin County orthopedics. Not all of them are your.

be for service patients, but so I was like, ⁓ yeah, that's true. I am busy in the name of my practice. Maybe not with just my private patients, but overall what I've built is still flexible. It's on my own terms because any place I've had hospitals approach about employment and I'm like, nope, not working for anybody. I work with you.

I'll come out and see patients. If that's what you need, you need an orthopedic presence at your hospital. I'll come out and see patients. I'm not gonna work for you. And I've done that. A couple of different rural hospitals that have zero orthopedic presence within 50 miles. Like, have you ever thought about working for... Not anymore. But I can come out one day a week and see the orthopedic patients.

that everybody wants to have an orca petis present, but they don't really understand what that means when it comes to having a specialist on your campus that you need to support. So just because you drop me in an office, I have to have all my bells and whistles to work. Yes, I have a bag that I carry around. I do injections. It's a little red rolling bag. I do injections. ⁓

Splint you have to do all those things. We have mobile imaging that I send out ahead of time to get the x-rays. I can look at them on my phone. I can go up there with the patient when I get there. And then I have a person that I work with that does bracing and orthotics and things like that. said, know, if you want me to work for you, all those things have to be in place. Like you can't just drop me in a clinic, but forget to buy, forget to stock casting supplies or braces.

or, know, this is how it works. And I found that out over this last couple of years. Thankfully, I stuck to McDonald's and I was like, no, I'll contract with you. I'm not going to work for you because I had to say, no, this is not going to work because you don't have what I need, you know, to take care of patients. But you want to tout that you have an orthopedist like you can't do that because people show up and they're expecting to get what they need there. And I have to say, well,

They haven't, they don't have this available. They don't have that available. So you're gonna have to go, but I thought they said, well, I know, understand. understand. Trust me, I understand. These places that I go to now, they are ortho specific, the workers comp places and ortho specific place. So there's several of us that contract there, different subspecialists within orthopedics, hand, et cetera, et cetera.

So literally it's almost like being employed. You just show up, see patients, treat patients, and leave them to go home. But at any point, if I don't go to work, I just take the time off. It's eat what you kill. So that, for me, it's like, I don't want to go this month if I don't have to, or if I don't want to. So, you know, it's no big deal. Of course I don't do that because I enjoy it.

I enjoy going and I enjoy being busy with those with those types of patients without all the extra It's not a Struck that you you know that we've Hospital questions ⁓ I had to have I'm probably gonna have more mindset shifts to work as a as I go along You you meet be different situations. You know, okay, how is this gonna work?

Before you get super frustrated, Shawn, let's look at it. Let's look at it. See what it actually looks like. And if it's in line with what you want to be doing right now. But I think I ⁓ can almost certainly say that I am not going to be looking for a job anymore. Whereas in the first six months or so, seven, eight months, I was like, ⁓ my goodness. I think I should just go get a job.

Dr. Tea (30:04)

Listen, you've diversified your wealth, right?

Dr. Shawn Johnson (30:09)

That's a way to it, see?

Dr. Tea (30:11)

Yeah, like you don't put all your eggs in a basket. You don't have rent that has to be paid every month, which by the way, I'm envying right now, even though I only pay like $500 a month, but still the idea of the free the financial freedom that you have with your time and your resources and look, you're taking a whole week off for your birthday. And it's like, that's all

Dr. Shawn Johnson (30:33)

Never done that before. was sitting here thinking, I was like, I've never done that before. Like I told the work comp place, I like, I don't want to work on Mondays because a lot of times if I'm out of town or coming back from a Locums trip or something, I may fly in on Sunday, but you know, flights get delayed and X, Y, Z, and X, Y, Z. I was like, I don't want to do Mondays. Okay. You know, move my day to this day. This works better for me.

And that doesn't exist in an employed situation. doesn't exist. Like you can't just say, I'm not coming on. And you can't take that. know, can't, those are the intangibles, I guess, like we were talking about. Like you cannot, you can't make it up. And a lot of times we just don't, you're in a situation where, for me at least, until I became in a situation where I can do these things when I was working,

you know, or working for somebody, you just thought like, okay, this is just what it's gonna be. Like, yeah, you can't go because you gotta work or you're on a call, so you can't go. It was never, it was never another thought like, oh, maybe there is something else I can be doing that lets me make my own decisions and manage my own time. But like you said earlier, we're not taught to own our own business. We're taught in school.

You get at your skills, go work for somebody. Use your skills, full stop. Like there's never, never any other option that they even discuss with you. You might get lucky and be able to rotate through a private practice and look and go, oh, this is different, but it's not, the norm, of course. They expect you to just get out and go work, go work for a hospital. It'll be fine. They don't teach you how to negotiate your salary. Nothing. Just get out and go work.

Dr. Tea (32:28)

Because there's job security, right?

Dr. Shawn Johnson (32:31)

Right exactly and they tell you that that was probably the like what do you mean? Mm-hmm needing an orthopedist. I don't understand the patient panel says different ⁓ I don't understand like jobs if you who knew an orthopedist could wake up one morning and be told you know You will not have a job in three months. I mean they honor the contract. They gave me 90 days or whatever, but you like I Wasn't expecting that ⁓ happen without any explanation.

Dr. Tea (33:03)

So I know that there's a specialist listening to us here and maybe they don't know that there's something else besides employment or maybe they're just unhappy or maybe they're afraid of private practice. What would you say to that doctor?

Dr. Shawn Johnson (33:19)

I would say, number one, find somebody, it doesn't have to be the same specialty, find somebody that's doing it, just talk to them. If you find, and that's the one, so I did have two peers that were doing direct care ortho that I was able to reach out to and just bounce some things off of, but of course I didn't have the opportunity to.

Gradually transition right so if you're in a situation where you're considering it. I would definitely talk to someone and Set yourself up for a gradual transition right then it won't be so scary I think it won't be so it won't look so impossible to do it because you will have a You'll have a plan You don't have to tell everybody your plan

I'll say that, you know, to tell everybody your plan. Cause most people will try to talk you out of your plan because they are afraid to do it and they don't think it's possible. So, you know, find someone that is doing it within your specialty or, know, if you're surgical or if you're, or if you are, ⁓ non-surgical and just talk to them about the process and they may or may not be a coach, but searching within that

within direct care, I think is huge because it's so different, right? And so many employed physicians, providers, a lot of them are just, they're scared to do it because they don't know what's gonna happen. Or for lot of the same reasons we were talking about, you mean I have to ask for, I have to market and I have to ask for money? mean that in itself.

Now that's still one of the things that I'm like, okay, I'm getting better. Getting better. But it's still tough for me to do that. But there's a way to do it. And then if you break it down, like you know Dr. Una, you break it down like Dr. Una says, she said, you know, it's just, they're paying you for your services. That's just, it is what it is.

People will get their nails done, they'll get their hair done, they'll get their this, they'll get theirs. They put down a $50 deposit, they turn into a whole lot. It's no different. And if people value their healthcare, you won't have an issue. And then you also gotta find your crowd, right? You gotta find your people. So you may not be able to market to the same, or expect to see the same types of things coming to your office. Like I had to say, okay,

I'm not going to be getting this, I'm not going to be getting that. I will be getting this and I have to be okay with that. Figure out if there's ways, if it's just something. Like for me, I have to operate, not have to mean like, oh my gosh, I'm going to die if I don't. I have to maintain my certification, have to maintain my skills. I have to have certain, you know, I have to have, I have to do that. So when I saw that my private practice wasn't going to give me that, hmm, okay, locums. could take, I can do locums. I can stay busy with that.

ER call and then with the work comp, stay busy with that. So now I don't feel so bad when my private patients don't need surgery, don't want surgery because I can still satisfy, you know, the absolute need to have to have a surgical case by number, like literally because the Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons says you must. If I keep doing this job, you know, I have to figure out how to get it done, but find somebody and talk to them.

It makes it less scary and they're doing it. So then you know, it's not impossible. I have one colleague that says, Shawn, do not do this. did this that was wrong. Do not do this. Don't, don't, you know, don't do this. I made that mistake. Don't make that mistake. So it'll, it'll help for sure. But just talking about it and not feeling like you have to make a decision right away because you don't mean you can plan for it. You can, you can definitely plan for it, plan the transition and then it'll be more manageable.

wish I could have planned. Wish. But the thing is, I probably never would have if things would have stayed just the every two weeks, check is in the mail, I mean in the bank and just deal with it. I had to hit crisis in order to feel like, go back. There's something else out here for me. Now I feel better for it.

Dr. Tea (37:55)

We call that defined timing.

Dr. Shawn Johnson (37:56)

It's true everything I mean I Every time I feel like I know what's going on What's gonna happen something else happens? And it's it's not necessarily you may feel like it's for the worst right there there But it usually you know it ends up being What needed to happen at the time so and that I think that goes that goes beyond? That just goes

speaks to people's faith and things like that, which I do have and believe in God and know that he has a plan for me. And I need to understand that even though you get frustrated, like, is this happening? And everything I'm supposed to do and it's still happening. And then you realize, oh, he has a plan. So let me just let this thing play out.

Dr. Tea (38:51)

So you don't have to.

Dr. Shawn Johnson (38:53)

So you don't have to repeat it exactly Exactly, and I tried my best to young doctors Residents anybody that come across I just tell them that there's a there's different ways now I'm not a coach not gonna be able to coach you to it, but ask about this ask about this ask about this Things that we were not told to ask about we were not taught you know just keep your do do know that there's a another way. doesn't have to be the way that people expect it to be. Just go into it, eyes wide open. There's other ways to get things done versus when I was at school or training, was just like, nope. So where are you gonna work when you get out? I don't know. I stayed on. mean, the military was one thing. That was almost, was nothing I could do about that. People were like, nope, it's time for you to come on in. No problem.

But then after fellowship, I literally didn't have a job. I was trying to find exactly what I wanted. That's how I ended up staying on in Louisiana. But at no time did I think, you know what, I could just work for myself. At no point, no point did I think that. That never crossed my mind. Never, never crossed my mind. And nobody ever suggested it either. I have some of my attendings now that are like, ⁓ Shawn, this is great.

Well, why didn't you tell me I could do it,

Dr. Tea (40:24)

But now that you know, that you know the doors have opened, isn't that funny how it works out? You just embraced it and you're like, I guess I got to learn the thing and walk through the open door now.

Dr. Shawn Johnson (40:26)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, as much as I can with younger surgeons, younger physicians. It's like, they could be done differently. It can be.

Dr. Tea (40:46)

Thank you so much for your time. How can people connect with you if they want to find you?

Dr. Shawn Johnson (40:51)

So ⁓ my website is www.DrShawnMDOrtho.com and then you can also send an email to info at DrShawnMDOrtho.com. I mean, your audience is all over. So if you're in the Houston area and you need some type of orthopedic care or your loved one needs orthopedic care, then definitely reach out. The other thing that I...

end up doing a lot of is that patients will reach out or potential patients will reach out and it's not necessarily the setup that they need but I'll usually say well let me see if I can find somebody for you you know because I know a ton of workapetus in the area so I try not to I don't I really don't like wasting people's time you know that's one another reason why I like to chat with patients before they see me let's make sure I'm the one that you need to see

Because if I'm not, then I don't want to waste your time. Let's find somewhere where you can go and get everything you need. There's a most, one of the most frustrating things in employee practice that you show up and the patient is there. You're like, well, you should probably be seeing such and such down the hall. It took them six weeks to get in with you and nobody asked the question.

Like exactly what is it that you need to be seeing for? Okay, well, Dr. Johnson doesn't manage that definitively. Let's get you to somebody that does. It's just the right thing to do to me, you know? So we do that a lot, myself and my assistant.

Dr. Tea (42:27)

Tell us who your favorite type of person is to treat. What do you just love treating? What type of person do you love seeing? So that we know to refer to.

Dr. Shawn Johnson (42:39)

I guess I'm going to have to say the seniors because elderly people, number one, because a lot of them are now, you know, they're on the other side of the bell curve now and they may or may not be getting what they need. They may or may not be getting the time investment that they need where you need to sit down, you need to explain, you need to talk. And a lot of them are just good for that.

Thank you for telling me that. Don't harm, no foul. I don't get any surgery out of it, but I know that you feel better. You understand everything now. And then a lot of the elderly patients are not saying anything about folks our age or my age, but they are really grateful for the information, for the time that you take with them, that somebody's listening to them versus some of us that are that are younger are just still just hip heavy moving moving moving fast fast fast fast. And they don't want they although they come to you and they want your help they don't want to listen, they just want to know what you can do for me right now and when can it be done. I'm like slow down slow down. So especially with this practice since I do a lot of assisted living independent living locations go towards elderly.

They left behind a lot. So even primarily because you know, surgical specialty, if you don't want surgery, then why are you here? And I don't like that. I don't like that we are perceived that way. Understand, but I don't like that we perceive that way. Cause first and foremost, we're, you know, whole person doctors. You know, you should take care of the entire individual. Not that you fit in and we treat everything, but see them as a person that needs care first. Long answer to say seniors, senior citizens.

Dr. Tea (44:39)

Me too. I get it. Well, thanks so much for your time. I'm so excited. I got to speak to you about your orthopedic direct care practice and I will put all your information as show notes. Make sure people have access to an orthopedic surgeon in Texas. Thank you so much for your time. 

One last thing. If you took anything from this episode, whether it's a small dose of inspiration or even an aha moment, could you please share it with a friend? or posted on LinkedIn. The direct care community depends on doctors like you because no one is coming to save us. So it's up to each and every one of us to keep the conversation going to a point where direct care becomes a normalized path for private practice and not some secret that we have to mine for. 

Thank you if you've already done so or if you've given this podcast a review, it really does mean a lot to me. Sending you peace and possibilities. I'll catch you next week.

Take care.