I often wonder: Why am I a doctor?

Maybe I want to live in the real world, a world without pretense, a world where people can’t hide behind money or status. Illness exposes our authentici­ty. And doctoring satiates my need to be witnessed and to witness the raw, uncensored human experience­. I crave intensity. It’s an addiction.

Like an emotional bungee jumper, I live to inhale the last words of a dying man, the first cry of a newborn baby, to feel the slippery soft skin in my hands, to cut the cord and watch a drop of blood fall on my shoe. And to wipe a new mother’s tears, to introduce a father to his son, to hold a daughter’s hand as she kisses her father goodbye one last time.

I’m a doctor because I refuse to be numb. I want to live on the precipice of the underworld­, the afterworld­, to look into patients’ eyes, to free-fall into an abyss of love, despair, death … and then wake up and do it all again tomorrow.

Maybe doctoring fills a hole, a void. I doctor for connection­, to be needed ~ to be loved.

Is ideal medical care defined by experts, politicians, or physicians? None of the above.

I was trained in family & community medicine to care not only for the physical health of an individual but the social, emotional, spiritual, and cultural well-being of the patient, family ~ and community. Impossible in a ten-minute visit. Health care feels like a competitive sport. Who can see the most patients. Who has the biggest, fanciest hospitals. At 36, I quit medicine.

Then came my epiphany: Put patients in charge.

I thought, “Why wait for legislation, another election? I’m a board-certified physician. What’s stopping me from serving the public?

So I held a town hall meeting and invited ordinary citizens to do the extraordinary ~ create the clinic of their dreams. Celebrated since 2005, our pioneering model has sparked a populist movement that has inspired Americans to create ideal clinics and hospitals nationwide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQEx_xcWrEg

Welcome to the Ideal Medical Care Blog ~ where politics, health care, and humanity intersect ~ your home for intelligent, provocative commentary on the movement to achieve ideal care for all. Inspired? I welcome your comments.

Pamela Wible MD