Everything looked so good in the computer, and yet what Father had gotten was not Medicine but Health Care-- Medicine without a soul. What do I mean … - Victoria Sweet

The essence of Medicine is story-- finding the right story, understanding the true story, being unsatisfied with a story that does not make sense. Healthcare, on the other hand, deconstructs story into thousands of tiny pieces-- pages of boxes and check marks for which no one is responsible.

[Regarding the saying "the secret of caring for the patient is caring for the patient"] The way we talk about patient care in our society is almost the opposite of what's actually happening. It's almost like the less we care in any way for the patient the more people talk about the patient, the "consumer" of health care. What was actually meant by that saying was that caring meant doing little things for them; it's the little things that establish the relationship between you and the patient, not some abstract "love for your neighbor." It's doing something actual and physical for this neighbor.

...when you're on your pilgrimage, you don't even need to know where you're going. You just have to know when you're off your path.