Renters or owners? A physician leader describes the mindset that keeps doctors engaged

Some physicians show up, do the work and go home, expecting someone else to solve the problems they see. Others treat the practice as their own and help build something better. Leaders can shape which mindset takes hold, according to Dale Patterson, M.D., M.S., FAAFP.

Patterson is a family physician and president of Beacon Medical Group, the physician enterprise of Beacon Health System, which serves northern Indiana and southwest Michigan. He and Mo Kasti, MBB, MCA, CCMC, founder and CEO of the Healthcare Leadership Institute, presented "Renter to Owner: Creating a Culture of Physician Ownership within a Medical Group" at the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) 2026 Annual Conference.

Beacon put that culture to the test after acquiring four hospitals and their medical group in southwest Michigan just over a year ago. The medical group added 250 physicians, growing by 50%. It now has more than 850 physicians and other clinicians.

In a video interview with Medical Economics, Patterson described the difference between the two mindsets.

"What we would call the renter physician is somebody who shows up for their job because it's work and they do it on a daily basis, but they think other people are going to fix the problems that come up," he said. Owners, he said, are different: "They feel like it's their practice, and they're a leader there, and they're building something that's better than what it was before they got there."

Patterson trained as a family physician, taught at an Air Force residency program and later directed the family medicine residency at Memorial Hospital of South Bend, now part of Beacon. He explained why physicians belong in leadership roles, how a mission becomes part of everyday decisions and why patients can sense when a care team feels supported.

He also described Beacon's Physician Leadership Academy, a two-year program run with the Healthcare Leadership Institute, and how smaller practices can build leaders without the scale of a health system.

"The important part about physician leadership is having people at the table who have that clinical experience, who have that knowledge to be able to help make the decisions about patient care," Patterson said.