Top Family Doctors 2002: Building Rapport Having a trusted relationship with a family doctor is a joy, and it may even make you a better patient. Delaware Today, November 2002 Liz Bukovacz knew her son Charlie deserved better care than the rushed treatment he received at his previous pediatrician's office. The doctor would zip in and out of the exam room, never stopping to ask if she had questions or concerns. "I always felt like I was a number," she says. "If I had a question, [I'd] have to be like, 'Hey wait, excuse me, just a second!'" While she was still deciding whether she wanted to switch pediatricians, she took Charlie to Dr. J. Jordan Storlazzi Jr. for a consultation. Storlazzi — who operates both a general pediatrics practice and a developmental behavioral pediatrics practice in North Wilmington — spent more time with Charlie on that initial consultation than the other pediatrician ever had. "[Storlazzi] took 45 minutes out of his day at the end of the day," Bukovacz says. "He was bringing up things that my other pediatrician had never brought up as possibilities." So Bukovacz turned the tables on the fast-paced pediatrician: She left in a hurry. Storlazzi has been Charlie's doctor every since. Storlazzi, 67, says explaining his diagnoses and addressing parents' concerns not only builds his relationship with the patient but also builds more-informed and health-conscious parents. "Thirty-five years ago, the physician was God," Storlazzi says. Parents never questioned his judgment and always obeyed doctors' orders. "Nowadays, you have to convince them. They're reading about all this stuff on the Internet. But it's good, because parents are more educated." Storlazzi has also found that a sure way to gain parents' trust is to let them know that he empathizes. He treats a number of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and one of the first things he tells concerned parents is that he, too, has ADHD. "It's really great for helping patients understand," he says. "They say, 'Oh you have it and you're a doctor?'" Since she made the switch, Bukovacz has visited Storlazzi's office with Charlie, now age 1 1/2, every four to six weeks. "His staff knows our faces. They know my son — they call him by his name." She compares Storlazzi fondly to her own doctor when she was a child, and she praises the genuine interest he shows when checking up on Charlie. Taking Time Dr. Richard Sharbaugh looks puzzled. Most family doctors know roughly how many active patients they serve and will rattle off their figures and statistics, but Sharbaugh looks down at his hands, folded on his lap, and admits, "To tell you the truth, I've never counted." But — he says — "if you pick out a chart on the wall, I can probably tell you everything about that patient." For 18 years, Sharbaugh, 56, has provided primary care for Robert Williams, 73, and his wife, Gloria, 73. Gloria gives Sharbough the highest praise any doctor could ask for: "This guy saved my husband's life," she says adamantly. In March 2001, Richard arrived at Sharbaugh's office for his yearly check-up. The doctor examined Richard and asked him to have some tests done. The test results showed that Richard had prostate cancer. That was the bad news. The good news was that Sharbaugh had caught the cancer in its early stages, and today, Richard's prognosis is good. Out of that experience, Gloria and Richard have developed a close friendship with Sharbaugh. "I hear a lot of people say, 'My doctor doesn't take any time with me,'" she says. But Sharbough, she says, is an exception. Sharbough sees his approach as a natural way to keep himself and his patients happy. "I hate to be rushed," he says. "I like to sit down and talk a little bit." He acknowledges that spending time with each patient may cut into his bottom line, but he's never let himself get dragged down chasing money, anyway. He grew up without much money in Chester, Pa., and became interested in medicine after his father was badly burned and spent several months at Crozer-Chester Hospital. He started at the bottom — as an orderly at Crozer-Chester during high school and college — and worked for several years to earn money for tuition before entering medical school. "I was on food stamps when I was in med school," he jokes. But his humble path to becoming a doctor has helped him appreciate his career, and it's also made him pause and appreciate the people he serves. He's willing to take the extra time because it makes the job fun. "The phrase I use a lot with people is, 'I sleep good at night,'" he says. "I guess if you look at the monetary stature of super-specialists, family docs are at the bottom. But I go through life enjoying what I do." The Key to Trust Carol Houseal and her husband Tim set out to find a pediatrician for their daughter Abigail, now age 3, by asking friends in the medical community. One friend, a pediatric nutritionist, meticulously weighs all the information about a doctor's background and office practices. Another friend gauges doctors on a more emotional level, relying strongly on her comfort factor when selecting a doctor. Both friends recommended Dr. Matthew Gotthold, whose practice is in North Wilmington. "I figured, if both of those extremes are pleased, we would check him out," Carol Houseal says. The Houseals met with Gotthold and liked that he was close in age to them and had small children of his own. Gotthold says being a father establishes a trust and a bond between him and the families he serves. "The key to [trust] is empathy: Either you've been there, or you have a sense of what they're going through," he says. "Having three kids of my own, I've shared those sleepless nights." And of course, he says, "Having children has made me a more sympathetic pediatrician." The Houseals also felt drawn to Gotthold's medical philosophy. While he acknowledges that there's a time and a place for medication, "the advantage of knowing your patients and their families is it gives you a certain latitude — more situations where watchful waiting is appropriate," he says. This impressed Houseal. "We're not big medicators of children," she says. "We wanted to make sure that [a doctor] wouldn't just throw medicine at an illness, that they would diagnose it." Houseal says Gotthold demonstrated his knack for diagnosis (and for appropriate use of medication) when Abigail's persistent ear infections a year and a half ago resulted in about six trips to the pediatrician's office. "We were almost to the point of looking at tubes in the ear," she says. But knowing that the Houseals were apprehensive about that solution, Gotthold tried antibiotic treatments and found one that worked. "It was very reassuring," Houseal says. "As a new mom, you don't want to do surgery." Her confidence in Gotthold has meant more business for him: The newest member of the Houseal family, born in October, will join Abigail as one of Gotthold's patients. Shaun Gallagher is Delaware Today's managing editor.