BIG DOCTORING IN AMERICA: PROFILES IN PRIMARY CARE

DR. FITZHUGH MULLAN’S LATEST BOOK

On Thursday, October 17, 2002, John F. Williams, MD, EdD, Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine at George Washington University Medical Center, hosted a reception to introduce Fitzhugh Mullan, MD’s new publication, Big Doctoring in America: Profiles in Primary Care (California/Milbank Books on Health and the Public), and to honor Dr. Mullan contribution to Primary Health Care in the city. 

Dr. Mullen, a General Practitioner, a prolific author, a former Director of the Bureau of Health Promotions at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and an avid promoter of primary health care, is Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health at George Washington University.  He is also a contributing editor of the journal Health Affairs.

But to us at Unity Health Care, Dr. Mullan is a provider of quality, medical service at our Upper Cardozo Health Center pediatric clinic. Amidst his multiple responsibilities, Dr, Mullan finds time to volunteer at Upper Cardozo where he sees patients several days a week.  Because of his position with George Washington University’s Pediatrics and Public Health Program, Dr. Mullan has also arranged for several of their students to rotate through our Upper Cardozo clinic.

Upper Cardozo is a community health center known for the diversity of its patients and services, and for the diversity and quality of its staff: doctors and nurses, medical assistants and clerical.  In 2001, 11,139 patients -- 39% of all Unity Health Care patients -- accessed medical and social services at Upper Cardozo, visiting the clinic 45,009 times that year. 26% of our patients at Upper Cardozo were seen at the pediatric clinic.

In his book, Dr. Mullan profiles fifteen primary care clinicians, including Unity Health Care’s Chief Medical Officer, Janelle Goetcheus, MD, one of our original founders and a highly recognized and respected leader in primary care for the indigent in the District of Columbia.  In Fritz’s own words (first paragraph, first chapter) “Big Doctoring is about a way of medical life, an approach to health care and healing, a skill set, and a mind set that is called primary care. It is about doctoring that is humanist, comprehensive, efficient, and flexible, doctoring that builds on the legacy of the past and the rich tradition of care in medicine and nursing. To that it adds the science and technology of the contemporary world, applied in a measured, evidenced-based, and coordinated fashion. In our current culture of medical care—noteworthy for its sophistication of technology, its inexorable cost increases, the absence of uniform access to its benefits, a high rate of medical errors, and the uncertainty of many outcomes—primary care provides a foundation for health care that blends good science with good judgment.”