For 19 years, Dr. Adrienne Towsen practiced in the kind of orthopedic group most surgeons dream of: five partners, employees who'd been there forever, a 30-year reputation, a family feel.
Then came the supergroup. Then came private equity.
The pitch: liquidity events, surgery centers, top-dog status. The math: one year's salary upfront, paid back over five years through a 25% management "scrape." The reality: 12-to-14-hour days, a salary cut in half, a practice that couldn't pay for gauze pads, and a call center in another location that didn't even know she was a doctor there.
Her breaking point came after a weekend of hip fracture call, when she did the math and realized she'd essentially volunteered her time. She sent her resignation the next morning. With no plan. Just the certainty that there had to be another way.
Five months ago, she opened The Towsen Clinic: a concierge direct-care practice built entirely on her own terms, where visits last 60 to 90 minutes and patients finally get what they're starved for: a human partner in their health.
In this episode:
- The seductive pitch PE makes to physician groups and the math hiding underneath it
- What "we're employed now. This is no longer our practice" feels like from the inside
- The moment a 20-year patient left because he couldn't get through the phone tree
- Why she resigned without a plan, and what the sadness-plus-relief told her
- Walking away from the OR after 21 years and making peace with it
- The surprising bridge from hip fractures to hormone health and women's medicine
- Her advice if work is murdering your soul: don't stay stuck
"I couldn't have been more miserable." -Dr. Towsen then.
"This is the beginning of my next chapter." -Dr. Towsen now.
Dr. Adrienne Towsen is an orthopedic surgeon and founder of The Towsen Clinic, a concierge preventive-care practice in West Chester, PA. Check out her clinic here. Follow her on LinkedIn here.
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