Doctor Behind the Desk... the Information Desk

This article is courtesy of Kaiser Permanente Northern California and has been published with permission. 

After 38 years as Chief of Genetics at Kaiser Permanente's Oakland Medical Center, Dr. Ron Bachman retired. But there would be no golfing or umbrella drinks at the beach for him. You can still find Bachman at the Oakland Medical Office Building, though nowadays he sits behind the information desk.

“I used to be a geneticist,” Bachman joked to a visitor at the information desk one recent afternoon, “now I just tell people where the bathrooms are.”

Bachman volunteers for three hours every Monday. To be sure, as the only physician among the 240 volunteers at Kaiser Permanente's campuses in Oakland or Richmond, he knows the hospital like no other.

“He not only knew where my doctor was, he knew her specialty!” said Simon Rubenstein, who got directions from Bachman during a recent medical center visit.

Sometimes, Bachman even recognizes former patients from his days as a pediatrician who are now grown up.

Bachman completed his medical degree in 1963 from the University of California, San Francisco. At Kaiser, he helped in the planning and coordination of comprehensive genetic services for Northern California members of all ages. He focused on genetics in fetal embryology and genetic education for physicians and non-physicians. During that time, Kaiser's Regional Genetics Service grew from his one-man show to an employer of 250.

“He’s very humble in terms of wanting to work on the information desk,” said East Bay Volunteer Service manager Pearlie Beltran. “He’s very committed.”

Two-thirds of the volunteers are adults and the other third are high-school or college students, all of whom undergo 50 hours of training, Beltran said. Adults go through a background check and an interview process.

“I went through all that,” Bachman said with a smile. “No, I didn’t tell the other volunteers I was a doctor. It wasn’t necessary.”

Immediately after retirement in 2006, Bachman volunteered to serve for a year in the Alameda County grand jury. He also volunteers at the Oakland Museum, serving as a part-time docent. Just recently, he spoke to a Bay Area support group for parents of children with Down Syndrome.

He sought the volunteer job at the information desk because, “I wanted person-to-person connection. I needed feedback, a feeling that I was doing something good.”

The doctor has brought a new element of education to the volunteer team, Beltran said, through informal mentorship of young volunteers thinking about health careers.

“He is a great resource because of his knowledge and expertise,” she said. Now Beltran is now exploring a possibility suggested by Bachman: recruiting more retired physicians as volunteers.