BUSINESS

Really solo: California physician opens one-person shop

A family physician explains why he runs a practice without any staff.

By Mike Norbut, AMNews staff. Oct. 11, 2004.

When Gary Seto, MD, a family physician in South Pasadena, Calif., decided to go solo earlier this year, he meant it.

Dr. Seto is the owner, physician partner, receptionist, nurse and back office billing staff for his practice. As its only employee, the doctor gets to take all the credit for the practice's success, and he doesn't have to look very far if things aren't going well.

Dr. Seto opened his practice in February after a long stint as a physician partner with the Southern California Permanente Medical Group, which has an exclusive contract with Kaiser Permanente. Mounting frustration with the health care system and the tragic death of his 10-year-old daughter a few years ago caused Dr. Seto to reevaluate his career. After reading an article written by Gordon Moore, MD, a family physician who runs his own one-person shop in Rochester, N.Y., Dr. Seto decided to pursue this business model.

In an interview with American Medical News, Dr. Seto talked about the framework of his practice, the money he saves, and the struggles he has had as the only employee.

Question: What convinced you to go from a traditional office setting to this model, where you're literally solo?

Answer: It was a combination of things. I had been frustrated for a while with the amount of work I was doing at Kaiser, which schedules an appointment every 15 minutes for all visits. That works out to about 24 per day or 12 per half day. Along with that, I would have to field any phone calls that would come during the day. Plus, I would have to handle any lab work and test results that came in.

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