On every trip I took over the past 30 years or so, I always requested – sometimes demanded – patient home visits.

Often times our partner hospitals would push back and question why these home visits were necessary. Many of our surgeons would ask why it mattered where the patients lived. I am sure it was a pain in the neck for them so I can understand their resistance.

But I always insisted.

To be honest, I always enjoyed patient home visits much more than the hospital visits. At the end of the day the hospitals pretty much all look alike. But boy, our patient homes couldn’t be more different

I’ve visited patients that lived in caves, huts made out of sticks, houses made out of cow dung, shacks made out of aluminum, 20 -foot fishing boats turned into homes, tattered tents, round houses made out of dirt with thatched roofs, floating houses tethered to bamboo sticks, you name it.