How TIMES HAVE CHANGED From Doctor VISITS AT HOME
Last week, I received a bill from a Doctor SPERO that I went for back issues with in the month of December 2007.
I got his bill in the mail May 1st 2008 and it is sad the system they must use to get a bill over 160 days after his service of sitting in one of his "stalls" waiting to see him for one hour and thirty three minutes before I even met the man?
I guess you might call his place a human factory?
The reason on how I got to this topic today is I am taking apart an estate in Sharon,CT and low and behold is a 26 pound books FILLED with over 5,000 prescriptions penned by doctors from 1925 to 1930.
The man that owned this book was a pharmacist in Waterbury Conn.
As most of you know a great doctor named Alfred Finn Jr. served our community for 40 plus years!
IN this book were scripts that his dad,Doc Finn Sr. had hand written out, some even just on a paper bag, back in this earlier time in medicine.His Dad was on Grand Street in Waterbury back in the 20's and 1930's.
Yesterday, Doc Finn Jr. came to my house to see this book and marveled at the prescriptions and his Dads stuff all collected by this Sharon man named, last named Martin.
What struck me was Doc Finn started telling me how he visited this house and that house back ( as he pointed up and down Pineridge Road ) as in the 1950's to late 1960's for him to make HOME VISITS, he stated, was very common!
I was brought to me knees,almost, remembering this same Doctor coming to my mom and dad's house to see us kids when we were sick.
As Doc Finn thanked me for letting him see a piece of history I could tell he was elated with, I was left thinking about the good ole days Doctors visited your home to see you and I am sure did not wait 160 plus days to send out a bill??
By The Way,can you imagine IF I waited 5 plus months to pay this Doctor,o my lands!
Yep, gone are the days of the Doctor Finns and hello to the days that suck where a doctor takes over 5 months to get you a bill?
I dedicate this story to a Doctor named SCALICE whom, I do not know where he is today.
I do recall on Christmas day in the year 1974 as I lay in bed sick in suite 515, at the CHH , the end of his cigarette dropped on my clean white bedding at the hospital as back then, it was socially accepted to smoke in the hospitals!
Today, I have a great G.P. and i had my first physical in 35 years last week and God willing I may even live a few more years!
Do we get any comments today on the medicine of today? have a great day and maybe Spero will call me today and tell me he will EAT the bill for making me wait over 90 minutes as I sat in one of his crowded little rooms waiting for his services?
IF not, I will promise to mail out payment in the am.
God knows I would never wait 5 plus months to pay any bill! Have a sparkling day. This story took less than four minutes to write.
IT is amazing on the power of the brain when pissed off just a tad, though really I already feel better since I wrote.
posted by Michael E. Driscoll at
6:00 AM
17 Comments:
Things for you to look into if you would:
Why is it that a teen from the Netmeg Conservatory, after drinking with many of his students, was brought to the ER for alocohol poisoning and it wasn't reported in the paper? If that were anyone elses child it would have been reported on. Many of the kids/students were partying and drinking, all underage. Sharon showed up at the ER and the whole story was kept quiet. Also, why are the students allowed to walk around town at the late hours they do? Is there no supervision? Someone should also institute a dress code for the girls walking around town.
Why is it many of the Torrington Middle School students don't have books for their studies? They work and study from copies made form books because there aren't enough texts to go around! Yeah, go to China!
Why is the Fussenich Park is not open for the citizens of Torrington? That was and is a public park left to the people of Torrington. The Twisters are a positive thing but they are not all that and they certainly don't require that the park sit closed for all but 2 or 3 months of the year. Remember when there was skating there, people could walk, seniors who don't have access to other areas of walking. Hmmmmmmm!
As for the cops being tired of the overtime, why is it so many of the cops joke and refer to themselves as traffic whores, claiming it's the way to build up their retirement?? I hope these issues will be looked into and brought to tlight, there are many many people who are interested in answers. Keep up the good work, someone has to do it.
Sorry for the typos, my keyboard is not working properly. I hope these issues will be addressed, although I highly doubt it due to their content. Politics and all that jazz!
Hey folks IF you know something to be true, please give details,, I do not want this to be a site where crap is stated.
If Nutmeg did have an issue they would be like many many own families as all families have issues!
we do not need dress codes for people waling round town?
I do not know nor can answer about the middle school, I thank GOD I do not have a kid to have to go to school of what I hear from real parents about that place and I agree about the park, open it up more and lastly, I do NOT call any of the cops what YOU call tem Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous, do see that system, fail us as per pensions and I do though THANK YOU FOR YOUR POST!
BUT let me add IF Sharon was at the hospital and it was kept hush hush IT could ONLY be because they were underage. sad but no diff than the underage kids whome names did not get out that did a home invasion which to me is FAR worse that getting boozed up!
I did not start this issues as i was talking about the world famous Doc Fin , can someone talk about him today or medical crap?
that book looks pretty neat it would be nice if we could go back to the good old days of home visits especially for the seniors and people who have a hard time getting around and besides who likes sitting in the doctors office for and hour just to be rushed in and out of his office in 3 minutes
i was so happy to see the article about Dr. Finn. He is greatly missed by so many. My family was blessed having him for a dr thru 4 generations, his phone number was on speed dial at our house. I cant ever remember him not returning your call in 10 minutes. And his famous 6 am calls to let you know your test results, I too can remember his house calls . He knew his patients personally , he took the time to listen to you before he handed out a prescription and never left a stone unturned to find out what was wrong with you.I thank his family for allowing us to take up so much of his time,And Dr. Finn if you are reading this Thanks so much for keeping us Healthy all those years.I hope you are enjoying your retirement, somehow i cant imagine you relaxing though.
Speaking of Dr Finn , reminded me of his nurse Diane , We use to joke with her and Dr. finn and tell him she was the real boss there.
Doctor Finn is working at a clinic in Waterbury or Harford Monday thru Friday he told me yesterday, yep, we know Diane, YOU R right, she did run the place :-) thanks for joing in today! pleasee tell your friends and others as well :-),md
michael our whole office is now reading you daily.
we get a kick out of you we thought to tell you so.
one person put it best that we do not want to see it become a Tim Driscoll venue as far his favorite line ' when I was on the city council '
we like you keep it happy though as taxpayers we believe you are also willing to speak up when you see wrong. please no dog park crap, we are sick of it and the downtown revi
and someone did post you in the bathroom today as well,betsy pam roxy and the boys. keep it up we love it
If the NUTMEG paid taxes, the town would be better off.
To that MUFF diver guy and Dante- they should pay taxes like all the other building owners do.
do most people know that the Warner theatre and the nutmeg ballet do NOT pay taxes????????
it would be over a million dollars to the town over a ten year period
think about that folks and yes doc finn did help my parents health back in the 1990s.
Hey Mike;
What's going to become of that book? It looks so interesting, and none of those 'scrips were written with pressure from the big pharmaceutical companies like today! Our family had a doctor named Wallek who did come to the house sometimes. All of us kids were scared to death of him because he was an old rough guy with a German accent..and he probably only seemed old to us, ha ha.
It's funny Mike that you have this subject because my friend and I were just discussing that you never see doctors with a bag anymore but while my Mom was in the hospital just over a month ago an ear, nose and throat guy came in with his medical bag and he must have had that thing since med school. It was an old leather bag, worn in just perfectly for him I'm sure, pretty cool to see.
As for you not being billed, that's just a riot....don't those computers just make everything more efficient!
i am writing from maine i was a patient of dr finns many years ago i remember while growing up in conn my grandmother told me on many various time on the way to see dr. finn how he used to come out to her house for house calls when her children were sick she lived in winchester andspoke very highly of him and his family i really liked dr. finn and i wished there were more dr's like him today
it is disusting that thw warner and the nutmeg think the run this town, and city hall just lets them do what the want. i think the should post the salaries of these people in a non profit organization, they should pay for the revitalization downtown!!!!!!!!! they should also let evryone use fuisnech park not just the twisters my gut feeling is that torrington is deathly afraid of change, if they want to do something, just have some balls and do it. mike i think this blog should be put in the paper everyday, keep up the good work!!
MIKE, I LEFT TORRINGTON OVER 22YEARS AGO AND I NOW READ THE RC EVERY DAY ON LINE. I REMEMBER DRS. MCKENNA, FINN AND VANONI AS OUR FAMILY DRS. THEY WERE AWESOME. I NOW TEACH HS HERE IN FL. AND STILL MISS LOTS OF PEOPLE UP THERE. I REMEMBER SWIMMING @ EASTLAWN CC POOL AND ANNE RUWETS BROTHER(CHUB) WAS THE LIFE GUARD.. HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED! KEEP UP THE COLUMN.
That SPERO guy should have called you and a bunch of us want to know Mr. Driscoll if he did we think it is sad as seniors the way some of the billing is done though yours tops the cake. please get back to us here thank you peg and art
SBLACKBLT asked me yesterday what I was going to do with the book
It is one of over 100 items I am presently selling on the bay:
THIS link will show you the book with 12 pages of it! Thanks again folks for all the comments yesterday, amazing! copy and paste this and you will see it!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130222103930&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=003
I'm kind of late in commenting on this older column,but just wanted to say that I also remember the days when those dedicated doctors actually would come to your house. I remember Dr. Michael Giobbe coming to our house well after dark,to attend to my sick little brother,this was the early sixties.
thanks for still writing,Mike!
Post a Comment
<< Home