A Patient Sends Thanks and I Couldn’t Be Happier
I received a thank you card from a patient that I wanted to share. This is what was written on it:
“You truly deserve a bigger thank you than this card for what you did. I will forever remember what you did. Thanks for my new hair. May this new year of 2012, bring good health and love to you and your family.”
On the same card his sister wrote: “Thank you so much for my brothers new hair! It’s truly awesome.”
Each time I receive such cards, emails, or letters, I get emotional because I know each patient personally. The relationship I develop with every patient is what makes this profession great.
All of my patients have my home and cell phone numbers and are told to call me anytime of the day or night if they are worried. The other night, a patient called me at 10pm with some bleeding that he said would not stop, so he and I met at 11pm at my office. I put him in the hair wash room and washed off all traces of blood and then took him to the operating room (I did not call my staff in) where I examined the patient. All signs of bleeding had stopped. He apologized for bothering me and I told him that this was my job and no apology was necessary, so instead of working on his ‘bleeder’ which had gone away without any help from me, we just talked and joked over many things that we had in common. We both enjoyed our time together and left the office around midnight.
You are seriously one of a kind Dr. Rassman.
Thank you Dr. Rassman & Dr. Pak for your care & concern for your patients and your dedication to BaldingBlog!
What a great story. This is why I love plastic surgeons and cosmetic surgeons of all sorts, like Drs. Rassman and Pak. Why are most other docs, internists, and just about every other kind such assholes in general?
Because most other doctors are essentially bureaucrats operating in monopolies and paid for by government dollars. They can treat you like poopoo and there is little you can doo because the next guy is just as bad an working in the same monopoly system.
In American cosmetic surgery, you have a robust marketplace as people pay for these services out of their own pocket. More choice and more competition ultimately means better products and services. The best surgeons like Rassman float to the top and both the doctors and the patients benefit.
Good points Mark. A friend of mine said that most doctors are underachievers, a point I thought was odd, but possibly true. It’s quite the opposite of what they would have you believe, i.e, that they are the intellectual creme de la cremes of humanity. Fortunately, there are some out there who are outstanding, like Drs. Rassman and Pak, not just as professionals but as people.
A little dose of reality. Most physicians who are not salaried are not ‘paid by government dollars” but get paid by insurance companies of patients on a fee-for-service basis- or in the case of most cosmetic surgeons – in cash by patients who do not get insurance coverage for the procedures. As far as most physicians being “underachievers”, yea…I guess the 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of medical school, 1 year of internship, 3 years of residency, and 3 years of fellowship I spent is good evidence that your friend knows what he is talking about! lol
Indeed, I was simplifying the issue – calling them all government bureaucrats. But this was to make a rhetorical point.
No, not all doctors are literally government employees. And most did not get into the business of medicine with expectations of becoming government employees. But most doctors are predominantly paid either directly by government dollars (medicaid and medicare) or by private insurance companies — insurance companies that increasingly might-as-well-be government entities, as their reimbursement practices and rates are heavily influenced by government actions and regulations.
This creates an environment that suppresses quality, especially in the area of customer service. No, doctors are not at all underachievers…not at all. They are brilliant. But their spirit is increasingly being squeezed out of them by the heavily regulated environment in which they operate (no pun intended).
“As far as most physicians being “underachieversâ€, yea…I guess the 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of medical school, 1 year of internship, 3 years of residency, and 3 years of fellowship I spent is good evidence that your friend knows what he is talking about! lol”
Oh my gosh, is THAT how much time you spend in training! Oooo!. Must be a superman! Astronaut training!
Excuse me, but why does spending a decade and a half in schooling make someone an intellectual giant? It just makes them someone who spent a long time in school– a highly trained technician. I have a friend in a dermatology residency who has an Masters from Harvard in molecular and cellular biology, a PhD from Harvard in genetics, and an MD from Tufts, and he’s the biggest bubble head you could ever meet. A total social misfit. On the social scene, all his education and ten cents will buy him a cup of coffee so to speak.
But seriously, and I suppose it’s all a matter of semantics, why can’t someone be an underachiever and still have spent 20 years training as a professional at doing something?
Hey doc, don’t let me burst your bubble– but gosh, it’s lonely at the top, right? :-)
I have been a silent reader of this blog but have to acknowledge that you are a great human being.