The Power of One: Rural Hospitalists Face Myriad Challenges
The Power of One: Rural Hospitalists Face Myriad Challenges
Dr. McMahon, a Virginia native who practiced in the military after attending Medical College of Virginia, was recruited in 1980 by two residency colleagues who had secured jobs in Pearisburg, a small town in the western part of the state. "I've been here ever since," he says. "I live and work with these people. I'm intimately involved in this community. I attend a lot of funerals. I'm the football team's doctor, and I teach at the college of nursing."
Dr. McMahon says that close-knit communities, such as Pearisburg, offer a different kind of medical care; he also says that kind of care is in danger of extinction. And he says something important will be lost if that happens.
Primary-care physicians (PCPs) help supplement the after-hours coverage provided by CGCH's two staff hospitalists. "This is a community hospital, and we all work together," Dr. McMahon says. "I know the family practice and internal medicine physicians and they know me." But he also fears that this level of commitment may not continue much longer.
"We're all aging in this community, and in another three to five years, the physicians are going to start to retire," he says. " … We're a dying breed from the school of hard knocks and experience, and we're being phased out in favor of technology-savvy younger doctors, for whom basic diagnostic skills are downplayed.
"There used to be more of a sense of camaraderie in medicine," he notes. "Back in the day, when I first started here, we considered medicine a calling and not a job."
For Dr. Vizcarra, the HM model of inpatient care represents a sea change in the connections between physicians and their patients.
"Now, in many small towns, you don't see your doctor anymore when you're in the hospital," she says, adding disconnects can be magnified in small towns. "I try to compensate by providing patients with caring, compassionate, common-sense medicine when they are in the hospital. Usually, after the first day, it's not an issue."
The Challenge: Extinction
Dr. McMahon, a Virginia native who practiced in the military after attending Medical College of Virginia, was recruited in 1980 by two residency colleagues who had secured jobs in Pearisburg, a small town in the western part of the state. "I've been here ever since," he says. "I live and work with these people. I'm intimately involved in this community. I attend a lot of funerals. I'm the football team's doctor, and I teach at the college of nursing."
Dr. McMahon says that close-knit communities, such as Pearisburg, offer a different kind of medical care; he also says that kind of care is in danger of extinction. And he says something important will be lost if that happens.
Primary-care physicians (PCPs) help supplement the after-hours coverage provided by CGCH's two staff hospitalists. "This is a community hospital, and we all work together," Dr. McMahon says. "I know the family practice and internal medicine physicians and they know me." But he also fears that this level of commitment may not continue much longer.
"We're all aging in this community, and in another three to five years, the physicians are going to start to retire," he says. " … We're a dying breed from the school of hard knocks and experience, and we're being phased out in favor of technology-savvy younger doctors, for whom basic diagnostic skills are downplayed.
"There used to be more of a sense of camaraderie in medicine," he notes. "Back in the day, when I first started here, we considered medicine a calling and not a job."
For Dr. Vizcarra, the HM model of inpatient care represents a sea change in the connections between physicians and their patients.
"Now, in many small towns, you don't see your doctor anymore when you're in the hospital," she says, adding disconnects can be magnified in small towns. "I try to compensate by providing patients with caring, compassionate, common-sense medicine when they are in the hospital. Usually, after the first day, it's not an issue."
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