Fulfilling a boyhood dream

By Ike Wilson

Mar. 26, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) --
As a youngster growing up in Karachi, Pakistan, Saeed Zaidi dreamed of being an air force pilot or a medical doctor. Today, he is Frederick Memorial Hospital's chief of staff and operates his own private practice.

A massive heart attack that took Zaidi's father's life when Zaidi was in the ninth grade crystallized his goal to become a physician. His father was 45.

"It's not easy" studying medicine, Zaidi said. "It requires many years, a lot of money and time, but whatever you want to do, you can, if you put your mind to it. It's determination."

Zaidi was the only one of 34 graduates in his class who completed residency training in New York City and opened a private practice without first joining a group.

"I started from scratch," Zaidi said. "I didn't join anybody, which is unusual. A lot of people don't do that because it takes a lot of time, effort and money and a lot of guts."

Zaidi moved to Frederick from New York City in 1992 and began to work in emergency-trauma at Washington County Hospital. At the same time, he was operating his private practice in Frederick and seeing patients at FMH.

His practice became busy, so he left Washington County Hospital and started work at Frederick Memorial. He became chief of medicine in 1997. Zaidi was chairman of the hospital's by-laws committee. By-laws are important because they dictate what physicians can or cannot do, Zaidi said. "Everything you wanted to change, you were stuck by the bylaws," he said.

He became chairman of the hospital's communication committee and helped form an information technology committee. That committee implemented a paging system for physicians and helped to negotiate a discount plan with Verizon (NYSE:VZC) (NYSE:VZ) and Sprint (NYSE:S) (NYSE:FON) for employees, Zaidi said. Telephone dead spaces in the hospital were remedied by installing a communications booster atop the building.

"We are now working on implementing electronic medical records and electronic order entry systems," Zaidi said.

Electronic order entry eliminates mistakes in prescription write-ups, decreases drug error, makes rapid responses easier and minimizes manpower.

The hospital began to use Cyberknife technology only three weeks ago. It is used mostly for cancer patients and is a non-invasive, nonsurgical procedure that directs radiation to a particular area, Zaidi said.

A week ago, the hospital began to use C-Port, another technology that is used during emergency angioplasty on patients with heart attack symptoms. Making these technologies available "are huge contributions to this community because before, people were going to Washington," Zaidi said. New technologies aside, Frederick Memorial has other challenges, such as limited beds.

"Since last year, there's hardly a day that the hospital has had a vacant bed," Zaidi said.

The hospital has plans to expand its 204-bed capacity in the next two years to add 50 to 100 beds, Zaidi said.

"But expansion is dependent upon state approval," Zaidi said, "so people should make some noise about the need for more space. This community is growing. Not having enough beds affects waiting time and service delivery."

What are the challenges the industry faces? "Dealing with high malpractice insurance premiums due to the high volume of litigation and the cost per case," Zaidi said.

From a patient's perspective, the challenges are getting health insurance, and when they do, they are often saddled with high premiums, high deductibles and coverage that is much less today than what it used to be, Zaidi said.

From a physician's perspective, coverage is less for a medical condition and reimbursement amounts are lower.

"And while other professions get 2 to 4 percent raises, we get cuts constantly from Medicare and all other insurances," Zaidi said. "Essential services are denied and sometimes it takes a lot of effort and time to get approval" from the insurance companies to perform services a patient needs.

Physicians are looking to legislators to pass tort reform, Zaidi said. He said there's also a need for a strong physicians lobby. The American Medical Association, even though strong, is not as powerful as the lawyer or insurance lobby, Zaidi said.

He said the physicians' lobby should work in alliance with other hospitals and health care organizations toward common goals. "A big shortage of physicians is expected in the next few years," Zaidi said.

A lot more people who want to study medicine are changing their minds because of the lengthy study time required, tremendous student loans and the lack of money compared to time students have to put in everyday, he said. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, visas are harder to get for foreign students, who may want to enter the country for medical training, Zaidi said.

Zaidi is married to Farzana, a pharmacist. They have two boys and one girl, ages 17, 15 and 8.


Newstex ID: KRTB-0064-24044071