Bent Tree Family Physicians

Long before I was worried about artificial intelligence, I had to deal with mom intelligence.

Chat-mom has changed very little over the years. She won’t hesitate to answer any question, whether she knows the answer or not.

Sometimes she hallucinates and makes my childhood sound like a Disney movie. Other times, she remembers the exact date of a family picnic 50 years ago when I spilt the iced tea.

Mom intelligence will just straight-up tell you “No”, usually before you can even ask.
She already knows your question, and you already knew the answer.
Ultra-fast, real-time, data processing.

“I know what y’all are doing in there!”

Don’t try to trick Chat-mom.
Some believe that she is listening to everything we say. It’s in her code.
She even knows what we are feeling.
Emotive intelligence at the next level.
It’s downright eerie.

Chat-mom is always happy to go mobile too, with pre-programmed responses.
“If y’all don’t stop that, I’m going to pull over. I swear. I’ll turn around!”

Mom intelligence has saved my life on more than one occasion.
I find myself hearing her instructions even when she’s not around.
It’s like she’s in my head.
Helping.

Artificial intelligence may change our world. But let’s never forget:
Chat-mom created our world.

Dr. Latta has been an important part of Bent Tree Family Physicians since she was 15 years old!
Watching her journey from a 15 year old patient to become one of the most respected family physicians in Texas has been our honor and privilege.
Bent Tree Family Physicians is proud to celebrate with Dr. Latta!

We are proud to announce the birth of Dr. Amy Latta’s beautiful granddaughter! ❤️❤️❤️

Frances Amy Latta
4:11 pm
4/13/23
8 pounds
20.5 ounces

Born to Jonathan and Nathalie Latta

Ready for some good healthcare news?
I still love Family Medicine.
The brilliant man in this photo is my college math professor, Dr. Boldt.
He has been my patient for 36 years.

He taught me Calculus in 1976.
I must have been a good student because he chose me as his personal physician as soon as I opened my office.

Primary care is a journey, not a destination. It’s about taking a path of life together, through ups and downs, preventing some things and persevering through the others.

Over a dozen of my college professors have honored me by becoming my patients. There’s something special about giving back to those who made my career possible.

How many people get the chance to say “Thanks” with acts of service?
Family physicians do that every day.

Family Medicine hasn’t been all of the things that I’d hoped for, but in many ways, this career has exceeded my wildest dreams.

Each joy in my career has had a person attached to it. Amazing people that have been appreciative, supportive, and forgiving.

Many patients are the children and grandchildren of my earliest. My most tolerant patients, thankfully, have stuck around to approach our 4th decade together. We’ve learned a lot about each other during the decades.

The best journeys are usually the unpredictable ones. That’s one good thing I can say about Family Medicine. My days are marvelously unpredictable.

By the way, the truth is that I wasn’t a very good math student, but Dr. Boldt saw something in me that he liked. I owe him for that and hope to have a few more decades to say “Thanks”.

Next pandemic- and we all know there will be one - let’s do things different.
Next pandemic - let’s be honest.
Surely it can’t be that hard.
Let’s start with “I don’t know”.

Practice saying these with me…
Especially you government officials lurking in the back.
“We are not sure yet, but we are open to every idea.”
Come on, you can say it, now mean it.

Let’s agree that we are all trying to figure things out.
That’s what good physicians do.
Physicians don’t so much know things…
Our job is mostly to figure things out.
That’s why we gather information, order tests, and get consults.
The core job in a crisis is to figure out what’s figureoutable.

Symptoms change. Treatments change.
Next pandemic - let’s agree that it’s ok to change our minds.
Don’t get hung up on the “truth”.
“Truth” changes.
Life teaches all of us that.
Ask any teenager. Ask any old man.

And this next part is very important -
Let’s let physicians practice the medicine.

The next time the government says “your personal physician can’t give you a vaccine, but a stranger with an Igloo cooler in a parking lot can…”
let’s push the pause button and go ask our personal physicians.

The next time a mysterious illness shows up across the street from a place that happens to be studying that illness…
let’s ask questions.

The next time the government says “Don’t ask questions” - that should scare the hell out of us.

Next pandemic - let’s ask lots of questions.
That’s the strength of medicine.
It’s the foundation of science and life.
Question everything.
No topic is out of bounds.
Each answer may lead to more questions. That is ok.

Next pandemic - let’s be smarter.

35 year Anniversary

I am proud to announce that, after 35 years, I am… not changing jobs.
Frankly, it’s taken me decades to get good at this one.

This month I celebrate 35 years of being an independent family physician.

I began medical school in 1980, which means that I’ve had 42 years to figure out how little I know. Family Medicine is very humbling. Just when I think I have answers, the questions change.
Let me give you some idea of what has changed since I began medical school:

There were no MRI’s.
CT’s were rare. We made a diagnosis based upon history and physical. Looking and listening was the most important part of the training.

There was no HIV.
The only med students without bloody shoes went into psychiatry. It was rite of passage to see scrubs change color.

No HIPAA.
We didn’t need no stinking law to tell us that patient privacy is sacred. You know what you call a physician that can’t keep secrets? You don’t.

No smallpox.
We eradicated this disease in 1980. Yes, it was eradicated with a vaccine.

No Electronic Medical Records.
Charts were handwritten. They were hard to read, but at least we knew where to look for the treatment plans.

No Telehealth.
We made phone calls to patients to check on how they were doing. No charge.

No Affordable Care Act.
If a physician wanted to charge the same high prices as a hospital, the physician had to be employed by the hospital.

No ACO.
It was a lot harder to hide how much a physician was paid before we got bonuses for over-documenting.

No Stark Law.
We could save you money by owning the facility and charging less. Government had to put an end that foolishness.

No coronary stents.
If you wanted better blood flow, you had to get your chest opened.

No laparoscopic appendectomy.
Closing long incisions after abdominal surgery was how students learned to suture.

No in vitro fertilization.
There are now medical students in the laboratory who actually started in a laboratory.

My career as a family physician remains fascinating and rewarding. No day is ever the same and my education never ends.

Would I change a few things? Sure.
But not my patients.
I would, however, like another 35 years to tell them “Thanks, I’ll try to get it right this time.”

Guy L. Culpepper, M.D.

Lucky for all of us, our “pot of gold” is our staff! ☘️❤️

Here’s a friend that knows what it takes to win a Super Bowl!

Overcome adversity. Overcome injuries.
Overcome bad decisions and bad luck.
Overcome bad press and haters.

Know yourself, believe in yourself, and keep working! Keep pushing! Don’t stop!
There is only way to win.
Earn it!

Home | Bent Tree Family Physicians Bent Tree Family Physicians: Nationally Recognized, Award Winning Physicians, Dedicated to Improving Healthcare.

Patients know things.
Rule #1 of healthcare: Talk to your patient.
Most of the time a patient will tell you
what’s wrong.

When the vaccine became available, many patients told me that they were waiting to get it from me, their family physician.

People did not want to go to a parking lot to get a government driven, Big Pharma promoted, investor enriching shot from a stranger in a mask.

Patients were having trust issues.
They had questions that deserved respect and attention.
The initial process of vaccine distribution intensified our nation’s trust issues.
Don’t sugar coat it. Getting a shot in such a manner is a fear-driven event.

All that mythical talk about “physicians don’t have refrigerators” and “this is the only way to distribute it efficiently” was BS and people know it.
The same people whose families have been getting vaccines from their primary care physicians their entire lives.
All of a sudden, that’s not good enough?

How did vaccines get to the parking lots?
In cooler chests. On the first day we knew that a week in a normal refrigerator was fine. Very soon, we knew a month was fine. And everyone knows that FedEx and UPS deliver to doctor offices.

Patients know things.
Family physicians and nurses ask our patients “what’s wrong?”
Our government would do well to listen to patients too.

Kerry Willis MD on LinkedIn: More Primary Care Docs Equals Higher COVID Vaccination Rates | 18 comments Who knew this would be true that having people get immunizations from a Their Family Doctor as a trusted source would increase vaccination rates ... 18 comments on LinkedIn

“We have a medical emergency!” shouts the stewardess. “Is there an attorney or a mathematician on board?”

Confused? So was the Biden administration when they formed a new task force to protect us from Covid-19 variants and guard against future infectious diseases.

Called the “Pandemic Innovation Task Force”. It was formed this week by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Fancy name. Worthy cause. Big problem.

They forgot to include any frontline primary care physicians.

You know… those family physicians with the most experience in actually fighting the pandemic? The ones who sacrificed their lives innovating ways to help people, while the academics and policy makers were hunkered down in basements.

America called them “essential”, but the White House, “not so much.”

What do you call a “Pandemic Innovation Task Force” that doesn’t include primary care physicians?
A “Pandemic Farce”.

Their appointed task force leader, Eric Lander, is a gifted mathematician, but you wouldn’t call him if you had a cold, much less a life threatening illness.

But don’t you worry.
If any future disease gets too complicated for algebra, the other task force leader, Dawn O’Connell, is an attorney.

“We will sue this disease all to hell.”

Bent Tree Family Physicians updated their business hours.

This holiday is brought to you by those who work. That is true of every holiday.

Celebrations of faith, remembrance, and joy are all in honor of people who knew that something was more important than themselves.

The enjoyment of every holiday tradition is made possible by those who are working so that others might rest, worship, or celebrate.

“Essential Workers”.
The quiet soldiers who defend our freedom, the tireless truckers who deliver our goods, the nurses staying late to offer care, and the custodians making our world a better place.

Work. Work. Work. Work. Work.

May God protect you while you are protecting me. And may you find rest when your work is done.

For 29 years, I’ve been honored by my peers as one of the best physicians in Dallas! Every year since the survey began in 1992.

You remember 1992, right? There were only about 26 websites to visit that year. Bill Clinton won the Presidency, Michael Jordan won his second MVP, and Achy Breaky Heart was on the radio.

It feels like a lifetime ago, and for too many people that we’ve loved, it was a lifetime. For those of you who don’t remember 1992, just Spotify Nirvana. You’re welcome.

I was in my 5th year of private practice when D magazine featured me in their brand new Top Doc survey.
“Which physician would a physician chose?”
No one can buy this honor. No physician can vote more than once. And no one can vote for themselves.

Now, 29 years later, I’ve made this list every year.

Hell yes, I’m proud of this recognition.
But more than anything, I’m proud to be a physician.
The greatest people I’ve ever known are physicians. Brilliant people, far more gifted than me, that made this the world’s most noble profession.
It has been my honor to serve among them, and to be called a “colleague”.

Season to season, the war rages on.
How many rainstorms, heatwaves, and snowfalls has our team endured?
We stopped counting.

17 months of testing, calling, treating, and praying. Too many sick, too many worried. Thousands grateful.

I am grateful too. I could not be here if not for these nurses. If not for our staff, our cleaning crew, our managers.
For all my skills as a physician, I could not do what our team can do. They bring the magic, the sweat, and the loving hearts.

These are the amazing people who can not work from home. They are here, where you need them. They are essential.

Our team leaves their families, day after day, season after season, to enter the storm. No rain can stop them. No fear slows them down.
There is no isolation. No safe room. No lockdown.
Patients need them. America needs them. So they are here.

They didn’t start this war, but these are the fearless people who will fight it to the end.

Dear Texas Department of State Health,

As a high profile family physician leading a practice size of over 30,000 patients, high-tech refrigerators, experienced staff, and willing hearts to serve, I begged to be a part of the vaccine distribution.

I filled out every form, attended multiple training sessions, and reapplied every week from 11/20 to 4/21. Every week!
Our office met every criteria, and we were approved.

But you chose CVS, Walgreens, Kroger, Fire Departments, Hospitals, and even hired vendors for Fair Park and Texas Motor Speedway.
Instead of trusted family physicians.

You chose to ignore primary care physicians who actually talk with their patients about vaccines.

Well…
You know all those people who aren’t getting vaccinated now?
Those are the people that I could have reached.
The ones with questions. The people who want to discuss risks and benefits.
The patients who trust physicians more than mandates.
But you ignored me.

Just like you’ll ignore this letter.

Just like America is ignoring independent family physicians.

So… it’s too late.
To Hell with my passion to help America vaccinate. I’m not jumping through your hoops anymore.

Call CVS.

Sincerely,
Guy Culpepper, MD
34 years of Family Medicine, ignored.

Fools and politicians still believe that healthcare is just a business.
Marketing spins, lottery wheels, and distorted science can generate profit, but there’s no long term replacement for trust.

Healthcare is based upon trust.
Sure, science is the cornerstone, but without trust, there is no application of that science.
Who would fly without trust?
Who would take a pill?
Surgery? Are you kidding me?

The Covid vaccine launch was a success using retail giants, hospitals, and government agencies…
Because of fear.

Fear led Americans to drive-through stadiums, parking lots, and untrained strangers with long needles.
Not trust.
Now the fear is fading.

Our politicians foolishly left Primary Care Physicians out of the vaccine launch.
They lied about temperature and distribution issues. It was about control.
They complicated the application process. It was about money.

Without fear, Americans are now asking tough questions about risk and benefit.
The kind of questions that should be asked.
Family physicians understand questions. That’s why you trust us.

Questions take time.
Time reduces profit.
So now, big businesses are becoming less interested in giving Covid vaccines. The volumes of profit at Fair Park or Motor Speedway are ending.
Realizing their mistakes, the government is turning to Primary Care Physicians.

Wouldn’t it have been smarter to include PCPs at launch?

For every hero that died preserving freedom, there were others who died trying to save the heroes.
Today, I remember the great medics, nurses, and physicians who gave their lives for America.

What is this amazing thing about a mom?
Can you see a cloudy sky?
No? Me neither.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful moms.
And in particular, to this one. ❤️

How can we complain?
Our world is beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors.

Pushing through their toil and sacrifice, they rarely worked for themselves, driven instead by dreams of a brighter future for their children.
Hungry, they prayed for food. Oppressed, they searched for shelter.
Indentured and enslaved, they longed for freedom.
Through war and fear, our ancestors fought to bring us a better life.

We are the future for which they toiled.
We are the Age of Miracles.

We hold in our palms the Library of Alexandria, revealing mysteries with a touch and sharing wisdom across the earth with a whisper.

We have split the atom, gathered the sand of Mars, and sequenced the DNA of humanity.

How can we not be astounded?

We have been struck by plagues that kill millions, and created prevention within months.

We have been raised by Titans, protected by Angels, and blessed by God in more ways than any generation before us could have dreamed.

Take a breath as you stand upon Olympus.
Gaze at the miracles around you.
Stand in awe.
This life is only possible because of the sacrifice of those who came before us.
Now say “Thank you”.