I also enjoyed reading your reflections and would love to read your dad’s, too. I have warm memories of him as my doctor when I got chicken pox. The closest thing to a Family Doctor now is La Clinica...the poor folks health providers.
Tom and I are doing a long road trip to the West Coast in the spring. We’ll be in the Bay area at some point and would love to visit. I’ll be in touch.
I enjoyed reading your reflections. My dad and yours had a lot in common both being foreign medical graduates. I miss a lot about those days when it was more about caring for our patients than having to make hospital administrators happy.
Back in those days, the doctors ran the hospitals. The "hospital administrator" was kind of like a building manager. But those were community hospitals--they weren't expected to make a profit off of sick people. That perspective changed when Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980. He ushered in a movement--away from public health towards private profit. <sigh>
I think I only saw your dad once during grade school and that was on the Sunday night we all came to your house to watch the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show! He worked so many hours but he ENJOYED his work, something I think the insurance companies have robbed today's doctors of because of all of their demands. I loved the Hegewisch neighborhood and all of it's family-run businesses. It was also where the closest Goldblatt's was!
It was quite a tight neighborhood - prosperous when industry was booming and losing out afterwards. Plus the industries that provided jobs also provided a huge amount of contamination which led to illnesses down the road. Remember how bad it smelled around the Sherwin-Williams paint factory in Roseland? Pretty sure people suffered from that long after the plant closed down.
I also enjoyed reading your reflections and would love to read your dad’s, too. I have warm memories of him as my doctor when I got chicken pox. The closest thing to a Family Doctor now is La Clinica...the poor folks health providers.
Tom and I are doing a long road trip to the West Coast in the spring. We’ll be in the Bay area at some point and would love to visit. I’ll be in touch.
Yay!! Can’t wait to see you!! 😘❤️
I enjoyed reading your reflections. My dad and yours had a lot in common both being foreign medical graduates. I miss a lot about those days when it was more about caring for our patients than having to make hospital administrators happy.
Back in those days, the doctors ran the hospitals. The "hospital administrator" was kind of like a building manager. But those were community hospitals--they weren't expected to make a profit off of sick people. That perspective changed when Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980. He ushered in a movement--away from public health towards private profit. <sigh>
I think I only saw your dad once during grade school and that was on the Sunday night we all came to your house to watch the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show! He worked so many hours but he ENJOYED his work, something I think the insurance companies have robbed today's doctors of because of all of their demands. I loved the Hegewisch neighborhood and all of it's family-run businesses. It was also where the closest Goldblatt's was!
It was quite a tight neighborhood - prosperous when industry was booming and losing out afterwards. Plus the industries that provided jobs also provided a huge amount of contamination which led to illnesses down the road. Remember how bad it smelled around the Sherwin-Williams paint factory in Roseland? Pretty sure people suffered from that long after the plant closed down.
So glad your dad did not have to deal with the medical system. You were lucky to have him a role model. That's pobably why you turned out so well.
I like your habit of bringing flowers to your gynecologist. I bring Raisin Bran to my GP- long story.