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When Work Feels Like Love
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2019/03 - March
National Doctor’s Day is March 30, a holiday that honors physicians, their service, the communities they work in and with, and humanity’s welfare.
There’s no finer spokesperson for our region’s quality healthcare system than Highlands-Cashiers Hospital’s own Robyn Restrepo, MD, a family medicine physician.
Having grown up in Waynesville in Western North Carolina and lived 17 years in the Andes Mountains with her husband, it’s no surprise that mountain air nourishes her…body, mind and spirit.
Working in small communities is vastly different from a metropolitan setting. Dr. Restrepo says, “What I like about rural medicine is that people express a lot more gratitude. My patients and co-workers are all friends and neighbors, which creates a sense of community.”
She sometimes runs into patients in public places. Often they will enthusiastically yell to a comrade, “Hey, that’s my doc!”
“That wouldn’t happen in a huge city,” Dr. Restrepo says, “It’s one of the many ways people show their appreciation for me. Maybe it’s because our hospital has a family feel. I love that. Patients really value that too.
“You know you’re in the right line of work when inpatient rehab patients say, ‘I don’t want to go home. I want to stay here and feel the love.’ That’s high praise.”
One of the things that makes Dr. Restrepo’s practice so successful is that she covers the generational ladder, top to bottom. Her patients’ ages range from two weeks to 104 years. Patients take comfort in knowing their doctor will care for them and their families for a lifetime. Having that kind of care continuity is phenomenal and rare, if not impossible, in a big city.
Even though some days are long and challenging, it’s easy for Dr. Restrepo to recharge her batteries. All she has to do is look out her window at the beautiful Western North Carolina mountains and experience the serenity they bring. This land and the people in it feel like home and family. That feeling is reflected in her practice as it does in so many other local medical practitioners’ offices, for a small town has big rewards, namely a high priority on caring and healing.
For more information about Mission’s practice, plans and programs, call Highlands-Cashiers Hospital at (828) 526-1200.
