Today we’d like to introduce you to Omar Jalil.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
After completing my residency and training in Ohio, I moved to the metro Atlanta area to be closer to family. Through training, I learned that I enjoyed caring for patients in the hospital setting. I started my professional medical career as a Hospitalist (Internal Medicine, specializing in taking care of hospitalized patients) at St. Joseph’s Hospital Atlanta. I was excited by the pace, collaboration, and by the opportunity to provide care to patients with acute and serious medical conditions. I also discovered an interest in the administration of medical care in the hospital setting with a desire to participate in process improvement.
My work in this area resulted in the honor to be able to serve as the Director of Hospital Medicine. My passion was to provide an environment where great physicians had the tools and mean to deliver superb care. When I saw an opportunity for improvement, I jumped at it. I have had the great fortune to serve and the Director of Hospital Medicine for Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital, Eastside Medical Center, and Piedmont Atlanta Hospital.
Through all of these great institutions and all of my patient interactions, I came to the conclusion that the best part of practicing medicine was the ability to provide and contribute to a better quality of life for the patients we care for. While I trained and strived to help people live as long as they could, I learned what really mattered to my patients was not how long they lived but rather how well they lived. I became interested in how I could further this quest, the quest to help people deal with medical conditions in a way for them to get back to better and live an otherwise better life.
My wife is a Wound Care physician, and I started to become interested in the work she was doing. I realized that even as a longstanding Hospital Medicine Physician, I had no idea about her field of medicine. The more I learned, the more intrigued I became. She was delivering advanced care using specialized debridement procedures, skin substitute grafting, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and more. I knew she loved what she did, but it wasn’t until I paid close attention that I realized that what she loved was helping her patients to live better lives! I learned that wound care wasn’t simply about growing tissue and skin or closing openings in the body but that these issues impaired the ability of these people to live the life they wanted to live. Healing wounds to heal the soul.
The joy I observed from the patient, doctor, nurses when the doctor proclaimed, “your are healed!” was quite moving and not so commonly seen in other fields of medicine. More research showed me that Wound Care is not only misunderstood, it is under-recognized, undervalued, and under-served for the community we care for. I re-found my passion in medicine and with a new mission. I trained and have been practicing Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine for the past few years. I joined my wife’s practice, Ten Med Wound Care Specialists, and we work out of two clinics, about to open our third. Our vision is to bring better awareness about what we do and who we can treat. We feel that there is a large population of patients who could benefit from wound care, they just don’t know it! That is what we would like to change.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have been some struggles along the way. I find that having the right team means everything. If you work with people who love what they do, the care will be great.
We’ve been impressed with Ten Med Wound Care Specialists, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We are a wound care specialty practice. We define a wound as any opening in the skin, and we can help both simple and more complex wounds heal as rapidly as possible. Our Internal Medicine training helps us to look at the whole person and consider all the factor that are affecting the healing process. Knowing that wounds can progress and deteriorate rapidly, we pride ourselves in seeing patients as quickly as possible. We are able to accommodate new patients within 24-28 hours, often same day. We have a personalized approach with friendly and compassionate staff. Our patients can expect a family-like atmosphere where we truly care that their needs are met.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I feel like I took a massive risk leaving my previous position where I was employed by a major health system as a physician and Director. This position was safe, secure, and I was good at it. I knew, however, that in order to realize the vision of the type of care I wanted to provide and the type of care I felt patients deserved I would have to work outside of a major health system. This was the only way I would have the control to make the decisions I felt needed to be made. Striking out on my own was new territory and frankly scarry. It is the trust in the believe that hard work and good care will lead to successfully realizing our vision that helps me through the rough times.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tenmedhealth.com
