Today’s health care has one constant — change. Everywhere we look, the health care industry is changing. In many cases, the changes happening are long overdue, but not all change is necessarily beneficial.

As an administrator of a medical practice, one of my job responsibilities is to recruit physicians to our practice. As I talk with potential candidates, I am continually challenged with the fact that often these candidates are more concerned with their quality of life than the care of the patients. I can understand the fact that a new graduate has spent 11-plus years becoming a doctor and now wants what is “due” him or her.

What outpatient doctors are now looking for is a place to practice medicine where there is little/no call and they don’t need to do any work in the hospital. Because of that, more and more hospitals are developing “hospitalist” programs to take care of the situation.

Oftentimes you will hear that a hospitalist is better qualified to do “hospital” work and a doctor who does “outpatient” work is better qualified to do work in an office setting. So, the outpatient doctor works in an office four days a week for about eight hours a day. The “hospitalist” doctor works in a hospital about three days a week for 12 hours a day. Yet, the training out of residency for all doctors is the same.

I do not agree with that approach and I have been laughed at by some of my colleagues. As parents, we assume our children will be healthy and never need to go into a hospital. But, we all know that things sometimes happen to our children and they get sick. My question to people is: “Who do you want taking care of your child if he or she ends up in the local hospital?”

I know that I want someone who knows my child and someone I know — someone I can trust.

We live in a world that continually strives to make things more “convenient” — as easy as possible. I know there is nothing “convenient” or easy about a doctor who gets called at 2 a.m. by the local hospital because he or she is needed to attend a c-section delivery to make sure the baby is OK. But, I want my doctor there if there is a question about the health of my child, even when it is not “convenient.”

The days of Marcus Welby are over. Not only is your doctor not coming to your door, he or she may not be coming to your hospital, either. The sad fact is that doctors who are born and trained in the United States are often looking for a lifestyle that is not always in the best interest of trying to provide the best care for patients.

We have been forced to look at foreign medical graduates who train in the U.S. These well-trained doctors are often the only ones who are willing to do both inpatient and outpatient care.

It is time for the U.S. medical schools and residency programs to get back to the basics of medicine. Doctors need to reevaluate their priorities — why did they get into the field of medicine?

Is it to make a lot of money? Is it for the title of doctor, or is it to take care of people?

We need Marcus Welby back.

Dan Hett is practice administrator for Pediatric Associates of Lewiston.

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