To the Editor:

Thanks for the great article on solo practice. Everything Dr. Iliff says is true. I am a 34-year-old family physician (five years out of residency) who recently opened a solo practice in Camden, N.J., the second poorest city in the country. I provide full-spectrum care, including obstetrics, in a population where about half of the patients speak Spanish. I have never been happier, and my patients have never been happier. We have acquired 1,400 patients in nine months, and they are still coming; I’ll need to close the practice to new patients eventually. Revenue is great, even in such a poor community, because the office attracts a healthy balance of privately insured patients, and we’re extremely efficient. If you want to work in a poor, urban community, then say no to community health centers and open a solo, private practice. It’s time to recapture what we lost when family physicians gave up on solo practice: better care and greater job satisfaction.