Richard Crowley remembers when Lahey Clinic was nothing more than a vacant lot and a trailer. Back in 1980, he led a team of telephone workers who wired the building that would soon become Lahey Clinic Medical Center, Burlington.

While working one day, he walked into the trailer and on a whim, signed up to be a Lahey patient. Over the years, Richard was very happy with the care he received at Lahey. Still, when he retired and moved 90 minutes north to New Ipswich, New Hampshire, he and his wife decided to go somewhere more convenient, which they quickly discovered was anything but.  

“The hospital we went to didn’t have all their doctors in one place. Each time I was referred to a different specialist, I’d have to go to a different place and tell my story all over again. So if you’re someone with a kidney problem like I am, you have to go to the kidney doctor and tell them your whole story. Or if you have a cardiology problem like I do, you have to go somewhere else and tell your whole story again. But at Lahey, everyone is together. You only have to tell your story once.”  

What Richard is referring to is Lahey’s multidisciplinary approach to care, the model upon which Frank Lahey founded the Clinic back in 1923. His idea was simple: a team of specialists all under one roof, who talk to each other in order to provide the best care for patients. Today, Lahey remains a shining model of this multispecialty approach, and people like Richard, who can’t stay away, are the proof.

“I’ve tried to go somewhere else, but I’m back. My wife went somewhere else, and now she’s back. We’ve discussed this: that we have to come back to Lahey because everything’s here in one spot. I have my kidney doctor, my diabetes doctor, my heart doctor, and my neurosurgeon here. And they all talk to each other. It’s a great experience.”