Ok,
I guess I didn't explain myself well enough (typical for me).
I would just like to know how many hours (paid or not) people are spending doing something besides doctoring at their office. I do EVERYTHING that does not pertain to working directly with the patient. But, again, that is not my question. I just want to know how much time you either pay someone (which I know MOST of you do not) or you and/or your spouse/partner spend touching ANYTHING IT in your office NOT pertaining to entering DATA into AC.
Brian, I do think you have explained yourself; it is just that people are answering from their own frame of reference rather than yours. The IT experts you have heard from here set things up and only spend a couple of hours a month on maintenance. Clearly, that is not what you are doing. This may be an extreme example, but it sounds like when a printer needs a new toner cartridge, you are the guy who puts it in. I don't think Sandeep and James are operating at that level. That is just at the extreme lower end of a long list of duties of increasing technical difficulty. Most of us who do this in our own practices are not paying by the hour for it, so I think we lose track of exactly how much time we spend. Perhaps we could give you a better answer if you could be more specific about the precise nature of your duties.
My guess would be that your employers just expect these things to "happen" and don't realize the extent of your contribution. As Dan points out, when there is a problem, you handle it immediately without any significant down time or productivity loss. Perhaps you should "go on strike" for a couple of weeks and see if they notice how valuable you are.
Could you give us a list of what you did over a two-week period and how many hours you spent?
