Switching to the dark side? — Moving from clinical care to finance - Careers: Special Report - a report of a former hospital administrator who finds work as a health care stock analyst

Physician Executive, May-June, 2003 by Brian A. Meltzer

I waited watchfully. That stock is subsequently down 16.3 percent from its peak, providing a more rational 6.6 percent return. Hindsight being what it is, buying that stock might have been a good idea. It's just hard for anyone to predict what the ultimate bottom will be after the fall from the peak.

And that's Wall Street--a lot of people with strongly held ideas making stuff up about the future.

But why the career change?

Quite simply I needed something different. I have a business degree in hospital administration. Experience taught me that bureaucracy is bureaucracy, regardless of how large your hospital's endowment happens to be.

As a physician administrator, I saw my role as that of a patient advocate. I was working in a very wealthy hospital and could not get what I needed to adequately provide for my patients.

During my subsequent job search, I was looking for hospital administration jobs around the country. I quickly realized I was setting myself up for the same frustrations, albeit at hospitals in much less fortunate financial situations.

Now, I'm in a situation where I'm learning and applying new things every single day. It's a lot like how I remember my first few weeks of medical school.

There was a definite and palpable anxiety about learning doctor speak. At that time in my life it was scary to have to learn something so foreign. I now relish that type of challenge. Right now I feel ignorant a lot of the time, but know that my level of financial sophistication is growing by the day.

That's not to say I don't miss the hospital world. I recently visited a large urban hospital as part of an analyst's visit to one of the large private hospital companies. During the facility tour, I immediately felt as if I was back among people who spoke my former language.

I happily demonstrated the PACS machine to the group because our tour guide, the CFO of the corporation, didn't know how it worked. I willingly explained to a couple of other analysts why those little babies had blue lights shining on them. I was home.

But sometimes you have to leave home in order to grow as a person.

Catching up on the news

I'm enjoying this new job. What could be bad about a job where Sitting at your desk and reading the newspaper is a basic requirement? The sad thing is that by the time I get tomorrow's paper, it's all old news. The new stuff comes after I hit Ctrl-Alt-Del.

Does having the MD and the MBA help? In a rudimentary way it does. But, as with everything, it's my work experience that has given me the tools to do this job. That's what gives me the perspective that hospital budgeting is about more than drug eluting stents.

My challenge is to make this job something different than that of the typical analyst. It's a good thing to be skeptical about the blockbuster potential of every FDA approved drug or biological.

The fun comes in the form of being contrarian, to literally capitalize on knowing when clinical reality will prevail over a differing Wall Street reality, allowing the ultimate buying of the low and the selling of the high.