LARGE FEES AND HOW TO GET THEM A BOOK FOR THE PRIVATE USE OF PHYSICIANS BY ALBERT V. HARMON, M.D. WITH INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER BY G. FRANK LYDSTON, M.D. W. J. JACKMAN, Publisher 121–127 PLYMOUTH COURT CHICAGO Copyright, 1911 By W. J. JACKMAN LARGE FEES AND HOW TO GET THEM 3 CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Medicine as a Business. Why Medicine as Ordinarily Followed Is a Failure From the Business Standpoint—Physicians Themselves Mainly Responsible—Queer Ideas About Philanthropy—Poor Business Methods—Tactics that Pauperize One-half the Patients—Doctors Easy Prey for Sharpers—Evils of Medical Colleges—“Charitable” Hospitals Injure Regular Practitioners—Free Clinics and Dispensaries—The Medical “Tin God”—Absurdities of Ethics—How Some Physicians Get Notoriety—Freaks of the Profession—Things the Young Practitioner Should Avoid 11 CHAPTER II. The Physician Who Succeeds. Qualifications for a Big Fee-Getting Practitioner—The Kind of Men Who Make Money in the Practice of Medicine—Business Mistakes in the Profession—Why Many Doctors Fail—Old-Fashioned Ideas as to Set Fees—No Reason Why Physicians Should Not Use Judgment in Placing a Monetary Value on Their Services—Prompt Collection of Bills an Important Item—Attorneys, Architects, and Other Professional Men Afford Good Examples of Business Sense—The Beard and Its Dangers—Necessity for Scrupulous Cleanliness—An Experience in Iowa—Reasons Why Many Physicians Fail—Psychological Factor an Important One 31 CHAPTER III. 4The Bugbear of Ethics. Intimidation of Young Physicians—Overdoing the Ethical Proposition—Spying on the Beginners Illogical Advice—How Some Men Become Wealthy and Famous by Doing the Very Things They Denounce in Others—Clever Evasions of the Code—Schemes by Which Valuable Publicity Is Obtained—Actual Incidents Illustrating Methods Prevalent Among Physicians Who Keep Themselves Constantly Before the Public—Working the Newspapers—Employment of Press Agents—How They Get Free Write-ups for Their Principals—Fine Work by a Chicago Man in Popularizing a New Treatment—The Making of a Sensation—Newspaper Story that Made Certain Ethical Gentlemen Wealthy—Administration of Unknown Preparations by High Apostles of Ethics 43 CHAPTER IV.