My friends and family would laugh hysterically if they knew I could be labeled a “Country Doctor Frisco”. I believe, after spending most of my life in Dallas with a few short spells in Boston and New York, “City Boy” would be a more appropriate label. That being said, I had a lifetime opportunity to practice as a General Practitioner last year in rural New Zealand. One thousand people, no stoplights, and a whole lot of cows. A very new experience!
Opunake will always hold a special place in my heart, and I miss the community there dearly. My wife and I lived on a cliff overlooking a beautiful black sand beach and had views of the iconic Mt. Taranaki from our kitchen. We grew most of our own food and explored the beautiful country that is New Zealand every chance we got (I will elaborate on that in future posts).
I was the only family physician Frisco for about 45 minutes in any direction and was responsible for the outpatient care of our entire community. In addition to the usual clinic duties, I made house calls, oversaw a 20-bed nursing home, and was the emergency response team if the ambulance was too far away. My wife still laughs about the day I had to respond to a trauma call in the middle of a pasture – tiptoeing between cow patties to get to a patient who hit his head loading cattle into a truck. (He was fine – just a little scratch we stitched up later in the much cleaner environment of my office. With that said, I am grateful for the significant upgrade of Urgent Care/Response Room at Diamond Physician Frisco Office).
Local activities included contests to see who could grow the most potatoes, a dinner theater performance by high school students and a volunteer-run movie theater that showed only one movie per night on weekends. School fundraisers included selling firewood in the winter and sheep droppings for fertilizer in the spring – both a far cry from the Girl Scout cookies I was used to.
Moving back home to Texas last month, I wanted to build a practice that would highlight the best of my experience as a “country doctor Frisco”. At Diamond Physicians Frisco, I am able to spend more time with fewer patients than I would in a larger, traditional practice. As a medical concierge Frisco physician, I can truly be available for my patients 24/7, and we can build trustworthy, long term relationships to better address overall sustainable wellness. Even with a population of 150,000, there is very much a small town feel to Frisco. While I don’t think dodging cow patties while on the clock is in my near future, I look forward to getting involved in the Frisco community and providing the same “Country Doc” type of experience for all of our patients!