“I (Dr. Bob Flaherty) was involved with starting the medical clinic about 15 years ago to provide health care for Bozeman’s low-income individuals and families. It keeps a lot of people out of the ER and the hospital. Angels work there…
It is already below zero outside the converted machinery-rental shop that serves as Bozeman’s Warming Center for the homeless. A local nonprofit…opened the center a few years ago after a homeless man froze to death in a U-Haul truck…
I come to the center Wednesday evenings after seeing my last office patient. It is the practice of medicine at a basic level: I’m here to clean ears, trim toenails, drain abscesses, listen to worries and give advice; to fix small but important problems that will allow the people here to survive on the edge of society for another day or week. I bring a large toolbox with basic medical instruments and several over-the-counter medications…
Jerry thinks he’s going deaf; my otoscope reveals both ears packed with wax. Tiffany and I irrigate his ears with my portable kit. Success and gratitude…
…I don’t ask, but with familiarity and trust bits of their history bubble up. Divorce, lost jobs, disappearing husbands or wives, alcohol, drugs, mental illness. These homeless are often different from the homeless you read about in the New Yorker or hear about on NPR. Certainly, many have hit hard times, but just as many prefer to live off the grid. They want most of all to be left alone. They are not poster children for political assumptions.
My assistant, Tiffany, will soon enter the world of 21st-century medicine: electronic health records, quality metrics, diagnostic and treatment codes, performance-based reimbursement, insurance exchanges. Medicine as process where the patient can easily get lost. But on this cold evening she has seen a doctor helping one patient at a time, doing small things that can make a big difference. In perhaps one of the few places left in America to practice simple care and simple caring.’
Read the entire opinion piece by Dr. Flaherty here: Diagnosing the Many Routes to Homelessness
Image Credit: Oakridgenow.com
How much we will lose when apprenticeships are replaced with technology and expediency? Fortunately, I believe there will always be those who want to practice their craft with heart as well as efficiency, but will sacrifice a little of the latter in order to satisfy the former.
this is beautiful – one human being reaching out to another. all about caring and nothing to do with judgement. all on equal ground, neither better than the other. only a gift of kindness and compassion.
Yes, it is beautiful. I was touched by the story and this man. A very good man.
May simple care and caring remain the essence of medicine beyond the surface technology and trappings. What a wonderful reminder!
Yes, yes it is Val.
This is a great story and reminded that the world changes, one individual at a time.
So moving. I recently wrote a piece for ‘Dartmouth Medicine’ magazine about the graduating class of family medicine residents, all of whom are passionate about connecting with their patients and making a difference in their quality of life. http://dartmed.dartmouth.edu/fall14/html/family/ It was incredibly inspiring, and humbling, to talk to these young men and women. Dr. Flaherty is clearly cut from the same cloth….
Thanks for sharing Lori. The Dartmouth family is inspiring…
If it’s any consolation: “Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.”-Matthew 25:40
-Alan
Having never read the Bible, you are tugging the horse gently to water. Wonderful quote Alan. Thank you.
As a survivor of the Western medicine wars, this piece gives me such hope.
Me too Sandy (on the hope front)