Listening to all the buzz, it would seem the situation for primary-care physicians is dire. Ask any medical student, and they will have heard about the job dissatisfaction, the under-compensation, the long hours, and the impossibility of spending enough time with each patient. The way to be happy, to be financially successful, many have heard, is to choose one of the more lucrative specialties: dermatology, radiology, ophthalmology, or anesthesiology.

Forget primary care, people say, there is no life in it.

How surprising, then, on a first visit to the Central Park South office of Dr. Dorothy Lebeau, to be greeted exactly at noon for a noon appointment by the doctor herself, a tall, striking woman, cheerful and relaxed.

Her answers to questions on diet, exercise, seat-belt habits and, gasp, general life satisfaction in a long, comfortable conversation defied expectations. A week after the appointment, she sent follow-up information in the mail. If primary care is such a tough business, how is all this possible?

“You think of each patient as a new challenge and set expectations for yourself,” explained Dr. Lebeau, 36, who began to practice in New York as part of the Concorde Medical Group after receiving her Masters in Public Health from Boston University and her M.D. from Tulane Medical School, then completing her residency in internal medicine at New York University School of Medicine in 2001.

When asked whether she feels pushed to work too many hours, she replied with a chuckle, “My hours now are better than residency.” She added: “If I wanted to cut down my hours, then I would. But this city is full of professionals, and anyone doing anything professional works long hours – that’s just a New York thing.”

Joining a group practice is one of the ways young doctors have been able to juggle the long hours. As Dr. Lebeau said, “I think very few people even think about going out on their own. It is a very daunting idea, one from days past.”

She herself is part of Concorde Medical Group, which includes more than 30 physicians from a variety of specialties, each a faculty member at NYU School of Medicine.

“I just think that people are happier in group practice,” explained Dr. Lebeau. “It helps relieve some of the administrative costs of running an office and reduces the amount of paper work.”

Since doctors in group practice are able to share the increasing administrative costs of insurance paper trails, this presumably leaves them more time to devote to patients and to themselves.

Dr. Lebeau, who just got married in January, spends some of this time enjoying the unexpected in New York, those tickets and events that always seem to pop up at the last minute.

In the end, all the reports of primary-care physician dissatisfaction can’t be wrong, yet Dr. Lebeau seems satisfied.

“We are all responsible for making ourselves happy,” said Dr. Lebeau. “Medicine offers a breadth of possibilities. There is always some other direction you can take.”

She paused, and offered an explanation that may benefit the new generation of doctors. “Dissatisfaction often comes from people who have been in practice longer than I have. I trained with this expectation, and so I don’t have the same sense of loss and disappointment.”