Working in Healthcare Hell

Survive the system. Save your sanity. Lead the change. Healthcare was once a calling-now, for many, it feels more like a trap. 'Working in Healthcare Hell' is a brutally honest, deeply personal, and darkly funny look into the inner workings of modern healthcare-from the front lines of exam rooms and cancer centers to the backrooms of board meetings and bureaucracies. Written by Dr. John R. Simmons, DO, MBA, a double board-certified physician with decades in the trenches, and featuring contributions from healthcare executive and registered nurse Beck Simmons, BSN, MBA, this book is a field guide for anyone burned out, boxed in, or fed up with the system. With over 50 years of combined experience, the Simmons duo exposes the truth about toxic leadership, micromanagement, broken incentives, corporate takeovers, and the soul-sucking policies that sabotage both patient care and provider well-being. But this isn't just a gripe session-it's a survival manual packed with real-world strategies, power plays, and sharp-witted insights for navigating, and even changing, the system from the inside out. Whether you're a clinician, administrator, executive, or simply someone who's ever wondered why healthcare feels so broken, 'Working in Healthcare Hell' will make you laugh, cringe, nod in recognition, and maybe, just maybe, light the fire in your belly. Because knowing how the game is played is the first step in rewriting the rules.

Dr. John R. Simmons, DO, DABR,DAOBR, MBA-HCM and Becky Simmons,MBA-HCM, BSN RN are a husband-wife duo with over 50 years of combined experience in healthcare leadership. John, a double board-certified physician in radiation oncology, has led the clinical department through accreditation, innovation, and transformation. Becky, a seasoned healthcare executive and registered nurse, has spent decades driving measurable improvements in quality, Stars performance, and healthy equity across health plans, tribal health systems, and FQHCs. Together, they've seen the inside of the system-its strengths, its failures, and its absurdities. Working in 'Healthcare Hell' is their joint effort to pull back the curtain, expose the pitfalls, and empower others to survive-and even lead-with integrity in a system designed to exhaust the very people it relies on. Raw, insightful, and deeply human, this book is not just a critique-it's a call to arms from two professionals who've lived it, fixed it, and still believe it can be better.