“It’s my pleasure. Pretty sure Will would keep Waffles forever, if you let him.”
“He better not,” Larry said. “I need that little pest to keep me on my toes.”
I smiled. “I bet. You know, Waffles knew something was wrong. He barked at the door when I got there. Led me straight you.”
His eyes grew shiny. “Aw, poor guy. I didn’t mean to worry him.”
“You worried us all.” I squeezed his arm. “You’ve got to take better care, Larry. If the trip is ever a problem, call the clinic. Let us figure out a way to helpyou.”
“No, I couldn’t do that,” Larry said. “You’ve got other patients.”
Behind me, Dr. Meadows entered the room. “Dr. Donovan is right, Larry. We’ve got other patients, and maybe we can’t go right when you call, but we can find a volunteer to help you out or get you signed up for better transportation. You can’t let yourself get to this state again. Next time, we might be too late to help you.”
“Okay.” Larry blinked hard, face full of regret. “I’ll call next time.”
Dr. Meadows smiled. “Good. Now, we’ll let you finish your lunch. Rest up, okay?”
“I will.”
I followed Dr. Meadows out of the hospital room. “I hope I didn’t overstep,” I said. “Offering that kind of patient care.”
He looked considering. “It’s above and beyond our resources to do it for every patient. But getting him to call in allows us to connect him with other volunteers and agencies that can help. You’re not wrong to want to avoid this kind of situation.”
I nodded, chewing my bottom lip. “It’s hard for rural patients. It seems like we should do more outreach.”
He nodded. “I agree. There’s always more we can do. I’m actually presenting the hospital board with a proposal for a traveling doctor program. It would be more along the lines of the old-fashioned house calls docs used to make. It would help us reach rural residents without transportation or in too poor of health to make the trek into the city.”
“Really? That would be amazing.”
“There are limits to what we can do, of course. How far we can travel and how many patients we could accommodate. But if it was successful, it could grow.”
“Would it be a volunteer gig like the clinic? If so, sign me up.”
“I’m actually proposing it as a paid position. If we combined it with traveling to support other rural hospitals and clinics as well as house calls, I think we could get the financial backing for it.”
“Oh. That’s even better.”
He nodded. “I don’t suppose you’d have interest…considering your surgical aspirations?”
I paused. “You mean— But I haven’t had a residency yet.”
“Naturally, you’d need a primary care residency first. You could do that with the hospital. If the traveling doc position gets off the ground, you could go along as a resident until you were qualified to work alone.”
“I…” Speech deserted me. This wasn’t anything I’d seen coming. “It wasn’t my plan.”
He chuckled. “No, well, you know what they say about best-laid plans.”
“What do they say?”
“Beats me, but sometimes change comes along for a reason, Aiden. I think you’ve got a real passion for this. You’re exactly the man I’d want in this position. But if you’re set on the OR, I know you’ll do a lot of good there too. You’re a great doctor, and any department would be lucky to have you.”
“Let me think about it,” I said.
“Take your time,” he said. “You’ve got to finish your research year, and I’ve got to convince the hospital board to give my idea a shot. It’ll take time.”
I nodded. “Okay. Thank you for thinking of me. That means a lot.”
He squeezed my shoulder. “Just let me know when you decide.”
