By By MARCIA STEFFENS / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS – The new doctor in town has a magic wand. Unfortunately, cures don't always come so easily.
Dr. Mark Lay, a board-certified family practitioner, comes from Watervliet Community Hospital to fill in at the Borgess Lee Medical Group in Cassopolis, 117 S. Broadway, in the municipal building.
Dr. Farrukh Ambareen and her husband, Dr. Mohammad Taqi, both internists, served the Cassopolis and Dowagiac areas respectively for Borgess. He accepted a position in Florida and her last day in Cassopolis was Dec. 15.
Accepting temporary positions is not new to the doctor, as he has helped out before where a doctor is needed.
He was a computer system analyst, working with cardiac CAT scans and business applications, when he decided to do something else.
"I wanted to be a family practitioner," he said.
A Wisconsin native, he studied in both Milwaukee and Cleveland, Ohio.
He did his residency in Ohio.
He worked in Nebraska for two years, returning to Black River Falls, Wis., and then to Madison, where he was in private practice for four years, before the practice was sold.
In Michigan, first in Kalamazoo, he received a master's degree in medical administration for Bronson and was the medical director of the community health center in Jackson.
Dr. Lay has had experience treating all ages, from babies to older adults.
"I like to present options," he said.
He feels the patient has a say in their treatment and care.
"I open their minds and help them understand the pros and cons," he added.
The risks have to be weighed against the benefits, when it comes to drug therapy, he said.
He finds it interesting and fun to "read people" and help them manage their care.
Everything must be balanced with what is important to the patient, he said, such as their financing, whether they will be able to pay for prescriptions.
"I am invited into their lives. There is such variation, it is never boring. I am always learning something new," he added.
The whole profession he said is an art, balancing knowledge gained from statistics, such as drug tests, side effects and results.
His shelves are already stacked with patient's charts, as he requires time to file reports and make such documentation meets regulations, whether it is so one patient can receive a wheelchair or a procedure is coded properly so the patient is covered by insurance. "It's challenging," he said.
Dr. Lay has also agreed to be the deputy medical examiner, while Dr. Robert Knox is on vacation. Dr. Robert Knox has practiced medicine for 47 years in Edwardsburg and has served as medical examiner for Cass County since 1964.
You don't have to be a physician to be a medical examiner or coroner, he explained. They work jointly with law enforcement.
"It is something new and interesting," Lay said. "I like learning new things."
Dr. Lay praises the staff at the Cassopolis clinic. "They are amazing – their compassion for patients who come in. They are nonjudgmental and supportive."
He added that "they also are creative and motivated to make things better, to improve care."
For example, he explained, any of the staff would encourage a diabetic patient to receive a flu shot, even though they were being seen for another reason, as the shot is highly recommended.
The staff has been extremely helpful to aide the many diabetics in seeking better lifestyles, such as the healthy walk through Harding's, reading labels.
The doctor himself enjoys reading and riding a recumbent bike, where you are seated lower and able to ride longer without straining. You also get to see the countryside, he added. He is looking forward to biking around the lakes this summer.
He has two daughters. Erin has a PHD in Physics and lives in Seattle, Wash. and Grethren is a political science major at Grinell College in Iowa.
The Borgess Clinic in Cassopolis is now open longer hours: Monday and Wednesday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Tuesday 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.