Declarations of a Dinosaur: 10 Laws I've Learned as a Family Doctor by Lucy Hornstein

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Synopsis

Not long ago, the family doctor provided one-on-one care to patients. Today, that doctor is a dying breed—replaced by medical groups who serve larger numbers of patients more efficiently and professionally, but not quite as personally.

In 10 Laws of the Dinosaur, Dr. Lucy E. Hornstein shares her views about being a doctor in solo practice—she recounts both the rewarding and the frustrating. Through engaging stories, Dr. Hornstein explains some of the challenges the family doctor experiences, not only in medicine and patient care, but also in dealing with today’s challenges of running a small business while catering to patients.

Every doctor in private practice will identify with these stories, as will anyone who has ever been a patient of an oldfashioned family practitioner. Dr. Hornstein lists the “laws” that have come to dominate her life as a family physician, which can be funny (like, “It is impossible to make an asymptomatic patient feel better”) to serious (“Sometimes people die”). Along the way, she writes about some of the patients she’s cared for through the years—from children’s skinned elbows on children to caring for the elderly. The stories range from funny to sad and triumphant to frustrating. Ultimately, Dr. Hornstein demonstrates the value of the family physician and declares that “this dinosaur isn’t dead yet.”

Biography

Lucy E. Hornstein, MD has been a solo family physician in the Philadelphia suburbs for 18 years. She was born and raised in Washington DC (which has left her with a deep and abiding apathy for all things political) and attended college outside Boston before coming to medical school in Philadelphia, which, she has discovered, is a black hole. (No one born here ever leaves; no one who moves here ever leaves.) She has been blogging since August 2006 when she assumed the persona of "#1 Dinosaur," a nod to the impending extinction of primary care.