Mt. Airy Family Practice physicians, from left, are: Linda Good, MD, who will be leaving the practice in early July; David Lewis, MD; Susan Leath, MD; Thomas Lyon, MD, and Deborah Clarke, MD. There is also a nurse practitioner, Vincent Tyson, who has his own panel of primary care patients, as well as caring for many walk-in patients.[/caption]

by Len Lear

Linda Good, the beloved family physician who helped start the Mt. Airy Family Practice, 760 Carpenter Lane, in 1989, announced last week that she is leaving the practice in early July, but “I think I still have my idealism intact, and the community never disappointed me in the high expectations I set 27 years ago. If there is any message I would like to convey to your readers, it is how grateful I am to have served such wonderful patients and been meaningfully involved in the lives of so many families. It has been a joy and privilege to be a family physician in Mt. Airy.”

Dr. Good, 67, and her colleagues have expanded the practice so that it now serves an almost unbelievable 10,000 active patients, possibly even more. Is she leaving the practice because she is simply burned out? In a recent interview she told us, “It is because ‘the stars were aligned’ with leadership in the practice being assured for the future, the availability of a good replacement and my personal desire for more freedom to travel and explore other interests.

“I am interested in doing something with an underserved population, perhaps with hospice and palliative care, contraception or drug addiction. I am looking at local as well as global options. I am also open to teaching and consulting because of my need to be supportive of the new generation of healing practitioners.”

As far back as 21 years ago Dr. Good told us she was deeply concerned about the “bean counters” who were taking control of the health care delivery system in this country — accountants and corporate executives whose primary concern was the bottom line, not the quality of health care. Have things improved in the past two decades? “Unfortunately, it’s worse than ever,” she said. “Physicians spend more and more of their time on the computer justifying their care decisions to insurance companies and trying to get benefits approved for their patients. I understand the need to manage health care costs, but this is not the way to do it. I am proud that we stayed independent in a difficult time for health care economics.”

Dr. Good, a native of Wilmington, DE, graduated in 1970 with the highest honors from the University of Delaware with a B.S. in nursing and was a full-time nurse for 12 years, but she was so appalled by “some arrogant doctors who treated out contributions as meaningless, even though they were often not even involved in patient care” that she left nursing to attend medical school. She graduated from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in East Falls, after which she completed 300 more hours of continuing medical education.

Are too many doctors still arrogant in their treatment of nurses? “No, thank goodness!” she insisted. “There is now greater respect for the contributions of each member of the health care team than when I entered nursing 45 years ago. Also, there are more women in medicine and men in nursing, which has improved both professions.”

Dr. Good also told us many years ago that too many doctors were "rude, gruff, nasty and insensitive," but she contends now that there has also been significant change in that regard. “I think the culture of medicine has changed in the direction of being more patient satisfaction driven,” she said. “If patients consistently report to me that a specialist I sent them to seemed uncaring, I usually don't refer to that physician again. Actually, this rarely happens in the Chestnut Hill/Mt. Airy community. I know I have been very privileged to work with wonderful fellow providers, specialists, and therapists.”

The physicians at Mt. Airy Family Practice are also on the staff at Chestnut Hill Hospital, although their patients are actually under the care of hospitalists when they are inpatients. (Ed. Note: A “hospitalist” — the word was first used 20 years ago — is a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant who is engaged in clinical care, teaching, research, and/or leadership in the field of hospital medicine.) Dr. Good also volunteers with the Northwest Interfaith Hospitality Network and with “Gearing Up,” a group that takes women in recovery on bicycle rides.

Dr. Good, who has one son, Ryan, an intellectual property attorney in Atlanta, was asked how Obamacare has changed family practice, if at all. “We certainly have seen lots of patients come into the health care system because of finally having insurance,” she replied. “There is more demand now than ever for primary care physicians, which ultimately will help to equalize the physician compensation and allow more graduates with high debt from medical school to choose primary care rather than feel forced to enter lucrative specialties.”

Dr. Good, a strong advocate of a “single payer system where everyone gets their Medicare card at birth,” was asked if she thinks TV medical dramas actually capture the real-life practice of medicine? “I really can't answer this.” She said, “as I have not seen many of these programs, unless you count ‘Call the Midwife,’ which is filled with compassion and dedication to the healing profession. It beautifully explores changing cultural, legal, spiritual, and social issues.” (Ed. Note: “Call the Midwife” is a British series about nurse/midwives that started in 2012. It is seen on PBS on Sunday nights.)

What is the best advice Dr. Good ever received? “Show up, tell the truth, and let go of the outcome.”

What was the hardest thing she ever had to do? “Being tried in a court of law as a defendant in a medical malpractice suit. Even though I was acquitted, the scars from being accused of hurting a patient still remain and haunted me daily for seven years between the subpoena and the jury trial.”

In her spare time, Dr. Good likes to make clay sculpture, read, knit, bike, yoga, garden, go to movies and museums and, “best of all, spend time with my husband.”

More information at 215-848-6880 or www.mtairyfamilypractice.com.