Meet David Kwon, DO one of our Family Physicians in Urgent Care and OMT [osteopathic manipulation treatment] at GHC-SCW!
What does your typical day look like at GHC?
In urgent care, we are quite busy attending to patients of all ages with a wide variety of symptoms. Our urgent care team strives to provide efficient and excellent care, which can include diagnostic testing done in clinic as well as outside of the clinic, coordinating follow-up care with primary care and specialist providers in both the outpatient and hospital settings when needed, and offering treatment procedures that are appropriate and helpful – such as treatment of cuts, skin infections, removing foreign bodies, splinting sprain and fracture injuries, and providing evaluations for patients who have suffered various kinds of injuries. Our unique scheduling system of having appointments, which is understandably surprising at first to people new to our clinic, allows for much greater efficiency and substantially shorter in-clinic wait times for patients as opposed to having a walk-in process, where wait times could be routinely measured in hours rather than minutes. Once per week I am able to offer osteopathic evaluation and treatment for patients, which involves assessing symptoms and hands-on manipulation treatment as well as discussion about modifying activities for healing and prevention of further injury.
What is your favorite part of your job?
With respect to both areas of practice – that is to say urgent care and the osteopathic manipulation clinic – being present with and listening to patients and offering insight, diagnostic and treatment options and information so that they can choose amongst various treatment options with the goal ultimately achieving the highest state of well-being possible for them. It feels rewarding to understand what patients’ priorities are first and foremost as the foundation to developing the most helpful course of action in a collaborative manner.
What is your favorite thing to do in Madison?
Hard to narrow down to one, so I’ll provide some highlights: Exploring bike routes with my children, picnicking by the lakes, checking out the farmers markets [yes, markets is plural! :)] enjoying local cafes and restaurants, and alongside with my wife and children getting involved in grass roots community activities.
What is your greatest accomplishment?
I would like to think finishing the Boston Marathon, after having healed from knee surgery. What is something interesting about you that most people do not know? I have been to Nepal twice – first for a semester as part of a college student exchange program, and then as a patient advocate helping people from rural villages access medical treatment in the capital city, Kathmandu.
What is your favorite movie of all time and why?
Groundhog Day – in addition to the hilarity, it provides a good reminder to take the opportunity to approach each moment with fullness and to appreciate the richness of life. Also, Groundhog Day happens to be my birthday, so I can imagine what it would be like to experience a birthday repeatedly :).
What is your favorite part about GHC?
I am constantly in awe of the collegiality and teamwork that I observe and experience. It is such a unique organization in so many ways, especially with the openness and curiosity that so many of our leaders display when planning strategically and the shared unified mission to walk the walk of providing excellent care for our patients while understanding that this is intertwined with provider and staff enjoyment and well-being.
