Now to explain what is the internal “Why”.  I love taking care of patients, love helping taking care of what you bring to me, it is fun, a challenge and life enhancing.  I also love my family and being able to spend time with them and engage in their lives.  I have three teenagers and a 4th grader now.  I also love my time to BE.  My time to BE regenerates me, gives me purpose and focus to life.  In that time I exercise, contemplate, wrestle with life, commune with the Giver of life, read, garden, and enjoy outdoor activities.  We are given one life to live, to enjoy the splendor of life, to delight in our Maker and each other.

For me, the business of medicine has changed the clean air I was breathing and has replaced it with dense smog as is seen in the summer time in Bejing China.  The business has become toxic and I so desperately need to breath clean air again.  The business of medicine has now invaded my family time, I work 1-2 hours after coming home each day to finish the paperwork, a few hours on the weekend days, while on vacation so I don’t get swamped when I return (I used to have to return a day early and spend about 8 hours taking care of the paperwork to get caught up).   My thoughts continually go back to figure out how to survive the onslaught of changes, staffing, coding, computer issues, etc.  What once was reasonably easy and on autopilot now feels more like a dog fight – all consuming.

Looking down the road,  I also see it getting much more consuming as we round to 2016 and beyond.  The financial pressures in medicine and in our economy won’t let up, the regulatory burden and what is wrong in medicine won’t improve, and the effect on all of us alike will increase.  So,  to renew the air I breath and to offer that to you, I am compelled to change.  Join me in this transition.