Interview with Dr. Carl Peters
In today’s episode, Dr. Carl Peters describes his transition from traditional practice to telemedicine, consulting and advising.
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Dr. Carl Peters graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia Medical School. Then he completed his Family Medicine Residency Program at the University of California, Davis. He is board-certified in Family Medicine and Urgent Care Medicine.
The first stage of the pivot was to learn everything he could about properly establishing a freelance telemedicine practice. Doing so enabled Carl to generate sufficient income working just 6 hours per day, 4 days a week. Once that was established, he focused on nonclinical activities to supplement his income.
A Family and Urgent Care physician with 25 years of experience and over 10,000 telemedicine visits, Carl is now offering his expertise in a variety of ways.
He previously provided direction and expertise as medical director for a network of 12 new urgent care centers. The health system he worked for opened all 12 in about 17 months. He is now the Director of Patient Operations and Lead Physician for Bow Tie Medical. And he continues to provide consulting services and occasional telemedicine visits.
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Telemedicine
Dr. Peters set up his telemedicine company as an independent contractor serving several telemedicine companies. These included large telehealth companies like MD Live and Teladoc.
He decided not to do block scheduling because he wanted to be efficient with his time. He generally works 4 days a week. That way, he is able to run errands and explore other employment and consulting opportunities on his off-days.
Here are some of the important steps Carl advises you take when creating a flexible non-employed telemedicine business:
- Obtain multiple state licenses (one in each U.S. time zone, if possible).
- Each telehealth company gives you the big population states of California, New York, Texas, and Florida. But you may want to focus on states such as Indiana or Utah, where there is often a greater need.
- Do business in a state that’s part of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact.
- That makes it easier to obtain additional licenses. You don’t want to do more than four to six states, however. Spread them out geographically.
- You will need a decent internet connection with 2 carriers. You can use your phone’s hotspot functionality as a third backup.
- Set up your connections to optimize your efficiency.
- Carl is generally working on one internet service using four monitors. The center monitor is his working monitor. And he keeps each telehealth company site open on an individual monitor so he can watch and select a patient that comes into a waiting room. He uses his own templates to improve his efficiency, dropping them into his notes as needed.
Preparing in this way allows him to interact with 6 to 8 patients per hour on most days.
Consulting and Advising
Once he felt confident that he could generate sufficient income through telemedicine, Dr. Peters actively sought nonclinical work. He signed on with a company that wanted to develop a new network of urgent care centers. As the medical director, he helped the company open 12 new clinics over a 17-month period in eastern Missouri.
He then looked for opportunities in consulting and advising other organizations. That lead to his role as Director of Member Operations and Lead Physician at Bow Tie Medical. Bow Tie Medical brings telemedicine services to employers to improve care, enhance quality and access, and reduce costs.
Dr. Carl Peters’ Advice
When medicine is just not fun, it’s frustrating, it’s not fulfilling… the biggest thing is to research and learn and network and connect… Second thing, if you’re not sure where you want to go, I’d say, keep it diversified a little bit. Maybe don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Summary
It can be more interesting and rewarding to diversify your job situation. By networking, you can find jobs that play to your strengths. Dr. Peters found the best networking opportunities on LinkedIn, Doximity, and Health Tech Nerds (HTN), or talking to old schoolmates, and co-residents.
NOTE: Look below for a transcript of today’s episode.
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Links for Today’s Episode:
- Dr. Carl Peters’ LinkedIn Page
- MD Live
- Teladoc
- Interstate Medical Licensure Compact
- Bow Tie Medical
- Doximity
- Health Tech Nerds
- How Do I Generate Awesome Income with Telemedicine Services? – 222
- What Is the Best Way to Leverage Telemedicine? – 181
- What Is the Latest Telemedicine-Supported Specialty? – 173
- NewScr!pt
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The opinions expressed here are mine and my guest’s. While the information provided on the podcast is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge, there is no express or implied guarantee that using the methods discussed here will lead to success in your career, life, or business.
The information presented on this blog and related podcast is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. I do not provide medical, legal, tax, or emotional advice. If you take action on the information provided on the blog or podcast, it is at your own risk. Always consult an attorney, accountant, career counselor, or other professional before making any major decisions about your career.