My Journey With Dr. Anthony Santiago

When I began my website, Parkinson’s Journey, in 2007, it began mainly as a diary of my journey with Young Onset Parkinson’s disease. Diagnosed in 2004, it took me a while to get into the PD ‘community’. Looking back, I think I hesitated because I was in shock. I think I am in shock again. Within the last two weeks I have discovered my neurologist is leaving.

After the initial shock of how this would affect me personally, I began to think about how this is affecting him – Dr. Anthony Santiago – my doctor. Forgive me if I get the facts wrong, but this is how I see it.

A cut in funding had to be done somewhere, so the overseers of the Movement Disorder Clinic in Liberty Lake, where he practices, decided to shut the doors for the PD patients, the dystonia patients, the essential tremor patients, the Tourette’s Syndrome patients and all the other over 800 patients for which he provided care. This is set to occur on August 5th.

The officials of the organization that fund his clinic said “…the closure is a cost-cutting measure necessary to maintain adequate funding for the hospital’s core services. Dr. Santiago will no longer be paid by this organization.” Obviously, the hospital’s core services do not include these diseases.

I am not the only one dealing with this loss. Here is what other patients had to say:

“[Anonymous], whose mother is a patient at the clinic, said Dr. Santiago spent extra time with patients, which she said probably put him at odds with financial expectations.

[Anonymous] credited Dr. Santiago with providing her husband, Robert, expert care that included careful management of his prescriptions – key to living with Parkinson’s disease.
“’My husband has been rejuvenated, and today he is active and enjoying life as opposed to not being able to do anything,’ she said.”[1]

It is a great loss, but money must be cut somewhere, right?

In the same article, Bill Bell, director of the Northwest Parkinson’s Foundation said, “…the loss of Dr. Santiago’s practice will be a regional setback. Patients travel to see him from Montana, Idaho and across Eastern Washington. [Author’s note: I know personally some who travel from Nevada and further.]

“At what point do you put community care ahead of the bottom line? …This decision is a tragedy for patients. What Spokane is losing is a doctor who is truly empathetic, knowledgeable and caring…

“Here we have a doctor who would take the time to understand a patient…Even if a patient comes in and there’s not much that can be done, at the very least you can sit with them and hold their hand and listen.”

The thing is, most of his patients are on Medicare, making this clinic a prime target for cutting back funding. It is a well-known fact that doctors/clinics/hospitals do not make the profit from taking Medicare patients as they do from other patients who have different insurance options or sources. It is also a fact (I am just not sure how well known), that some doctors have actually asked their receptionists not to schedule them with patients on Medicare anymore because of the very reason that they will not be paid as much by Medicare. That right there tells you why they are in practice – at least to me.

For those who are on Medicare as their sole insurance carrier, for whatever reason (usually because they cannot get, cannot afford, or do not qualify for insurance any other way), this feels like a slap in the face. I am sure it probably feels like that to Dr. Santiago. He gives care and attention to his patients beyond the norm and it feels like to me as if he just got his hands slapped for being exceptional.

Call it lack of funding or whatever you like. At some point a person has to ask what some health clinics/officials are really all about – making people ‘healthy’ or making money.

Unable to thank him personally due to legal parameters, I want to say thank you Dr. Santiago, for always being on time – always. Never once in five years did I wait, as is the norm in most clinics. I want to thank you for giving me care as if I was the only patient you had to care for. I want to thank you for being a friend, for being so easy to talk to and being a listening ear and knowing struggles with a disease are not all physical. I want to thank you for going above and beyond in so many ways that no other doctor I have ever had, could ever measure up to and I am almost certain, never will. I thank you for your wisdom and knowledge that you shared and for always making me feel comfortable. You bring honor to the word ‘doctor’ and deserve the greatest respect for what you do and how you do it. And thanks as well to your great staff for reflecting your values. You guys are all great! May God go with you and bless you for how you have been such a blessing to countless others.

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