Hello, and thank you for visiting. I am Dr. Bob Robison.
I am a family physician by training and was in private practice for twelve years. Since then, I have been the Chief Medical Officer of several large health plans in various parts of the eastern United States. I went from private practice to the business world overnight. It was quite a change.
While I was In private practice, I took care of a variety of patients from cradle to grave. I had so many wonderful people in my practice. They included rich and poor, healthy and sick, happy and sad. I saw them most often when there was a problem or a concern, sometimes physical, sometimes emotional, and often both. You get to know people really well over time when you take care of them and their extended families.
Many of my patients had issues related to stress, anxiety, depression, and emotional illnesses. Anxiety, depression and stress related illnesses are common, and sometimes very difficult to treat. I helped them as much as I could, and sometimes referred them to others when I did not feel I could help them adequately. I worked with many people who were suffering a major loss, whether a job, a spouse, a beloved family member other than spouse, etc.
When I left private practice and went into managed care, I was part of a team that provided clinical care and support to some of the sickest and poorest people in this country. I took care of Medicare, Medicaid and Special Needs patients for much of that time. I have wonderful stories of plan members who needed so much more than just a pill or a treatment. We worked hard to help them to understand the nature of their illness, and the ways that they could participate in their care and obtain a better outcome. Many of their chronic conditions would not go away, and would improve only minimally, and then decline over time.
But we were able to help them to achieve optimal health outcomes over the long term, slow the progression of their disease, and alleviate some of their misery and suffering. And most of them really appreciated the help. Many of the people we helped really had no expectation that anyone cared about them, until our case managers called or visited them. People respond to simple attention, clear information and a feeling of respect and dignified treatment. That was the key to our success.
Clinical professionals also respond best to respect and dignified treatment. I worked with some wonderful doctors, nurses, therapists and other clinical personnel and administrators in the community. I have had a very rewarding career, and I learned a lot about life and health in the process. I became a businessman almost overnight, but I was still a doctor. My health plans always made a profit, but the primary motivation was good care, not higher profit margins. I was fortunate to work for companies with caring cultures almost my entire career. Business has changed a lot in the past twenty years. The book discusses some of these changes.
When I was in practice, I wrote self-help sheets, and made audiotapes for my patients when appropriate. (Cassette tapes were the standard technology back then.) I had a little mixer, and I would start with some rousing music, and then fade into a quiet pause, and then talk with them on the tape. The message was focused on positive self-talk, and positive attitude. They would play the tape every morning when they awoke. (I sometimes found that the spouse found more value in these tapes than the patient. They were actually quite popular.)
After discussion with the patient, we would adjust the message depending on the achieved results, until we either got the desired result, or the patient moved on to other treatment. Overall, it was very successful. There are simple techniques for developing positive self-talk that I used for my patients in conjunction with traditional counseling, medications, and support. Times have changed, and technology is more sophisticated, but these techniques still work well, especially in times of stress. Losing your job is stressful. Self-talk is a powerful tool.
My book, So You Have This Opportunity, includes information about self-talk, and self-esteem. There is also a chapter on self-actualization, which is the highest level of success in life. This is the time to move forward, and claim success in life. This is the opportunity. Life threw lemons at you, and now you have to make lemonade. So make really good lemonade, sell it at a profit, and keep moving up.
Losing your job unexpectedly can be very painful. I know. It happened to me.
I looked for reasons, for understanding of what happened, and why. Answers were not forthcoming. I struggled for a while until I worked through it. I had help getting through the difficult times. I learned a lot, and I want to pass that knowledge on to you.
I hope you will find value in my book if you are either in a terrible job situation or if you have been terminated unexpectedly from your job.
Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. Positive comments are great, but critical comments are very much appreciated also, especially if you have suggestions for ways to improve the content and message. Please use our contact form. I will try to respond to constructive comments either in my blog or individually if appropriate. I may not be able to respond individually to every comment received.
I hope you find benefit in visiting here, and you are welcome to come back often as we update the content. A website is something new for me. I am learning every day.
Have a great day, and while you are at it, have a wonderful rest of your life. I hope you find happiness, peace, love and joy in great measure. I also hope that you help others along the way as you journey through this wonderful life.
-Bob