In this episode of the Prosperous Doc®, our host Shane Tenny, CFP®, talks to Dr. Zed Zha, MD, about her work in a rural eastern Washington State farming community of 8,500, where the predominant population is made up of Spanish-speaking and Indigenous-speaking residents.
From an early stage in her medical education and training, Dr. Zed Zha knew she wanted to do primary care family medicine. The urban market of highly specialized care wasn’t the place for Dr. Zha, given her love for delivering babies, geriatric care, and interest in dermatology, all of which led to work in rural areas where she could practice a variety of medicinal care.
In this episode of the Prosperous Doc®, our host Shane Tenny, CFP® talks to Dr. Zed Zha, MD, about her work in a rural eastern Washington State farming community of 8,500, where the predominant population is made up of Spanish-speaking and Indigenous-speaking residents. Dr. Zha talks about building trust with her patients, who are mostly immigrants and/or undocumented workers. Her own experiences as an immigrant prepared her empathy toward and understanding of the population she serves.
“I know what it’s like to come to a country by myself, not knowing how to fluently speak the language and having to start over as an adult,” Dr. Zha says. “I do have a lot of privileges in life, but I think I share some of the hardships or disadvantages with my patients. So to a degree, I think I get it. That’s one of my advantages.”
Because the patient population is members of the farming community and working class, Dr. Zha is also well-versed in acute care with injuries and urgent care needs.
“It’s a cradle-to-grave kind of practice that we do here … really a full variety of things that you could see in medicine in general,” says Dr. Zha.
Name: Dr. Zed Zha, MD
What she does: Dr. Zed Zha is a board-certified primary care physician offering obstetrics and hospital medicine in rural Washington state, where she is also a clinical instructor for the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Company: Columbia Basin Health Association
Words of wisdom: “This is a small community. We take care of people’s families and friends. Whatever we can do, whatever staff can do to help make the visits easier — whether it be helping us translate or just getting patients from their homes to our clinic — we’re willing to do it.”
Connect: Website | LinkedIn | Twitter
Top takeaways from this episode
[07:40] Bilingual business: Nearly all of the medical assistants and staff at Dr. Zha’s rural Washington clinic are bilingual. This is extremely advantageous to helping the primarily Spanish and Indigenous-speaking clientele who come in for medical help.
[11:19] A dying breed: Current trends indicate a coming physician shortage over the next couple of decades, which will particularly affect country doctors. Dr. Zha argues for the importance of more rotations in medical school and residencies and reversing misconceptions about primary and rural care.
[18:27] COVID-19 task force: Dr. Zha hails from Beijing, China, and always kept a close watch on current events there, which allowed her to be privy to COVID-19 and its spread before the pandemic spread to America. Her proactivity landed her the role of the COVID-19 Task Force leader of rural eastern Washington state.
[22:34] Outreach: Dr. Zha, along with her colleague Dr. Jude Alsarraj, took action to inform non-English-speaking community members about the risks and safety measures of COVID-19 by creating accessible media in their own native languages.
[26:22] Work in progress: Along with co-author Chloe Ackerman, PsyD (and the helpful guidance of her literary agent, Kathryn Willms), Dr. Zha is currently working on her first book, “Essential: A Chinese Doctor on Rural America’s Pandemic Frontline,” which chronicles Dr. Zha’s work as a full-scope family doctor in rural America during the pandemic.
[29:53] Social justice: Without health equity, there is little to say about health care, as it is a human right that is unequally allocated in America. Dr. Zha and her colleagues adamantly fight for social justice, always advocating for their patients.
[37:08] Shout-outs: Dr. Zha gives thanks and credit to the many people who helped her achieve her goals: Dr. Cathleen E. Morrow, MD, Dr. James Withers, MD, FACP, Dr. Dennis Costakos, MD, her attendings at Mayo Clinic La Crosse, and Dr. Richard P. Usatine, MD, FAAFP.
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Disclaimer: Prosperous Doc podcast by Spaugh Dameron Tenny highlights real-life stories from doctors, dentists, and those whose work can help them to encourage and inspire listeners through discussions of professional successes and failures in addition to personal stories and financial wellness advice. Spaugh Dameron Tenny is a comprehensive financial planning firm serving doctors and dentists throughout the U.S. To find out more about Spaugh Dameron Tenny, visit our website at http://www.sdtplanning.com . You can also connect with our host, Shane Tenny, CFP®, at shane@prosperousdoc.com.
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Top quotes from the episode:
[06:40] “I do have the advantage of sharing a lot in common with the immigrant populations I serve. For example, I grew up in a multi-generational housing situation where a lot of our patients live right now. We both share this relentless respect for our elders, some of our food elements are pretty similar too — wheat, lots of spicy food, lots of different variety, street foods, and such.”
[23:15] “My friend and colleague, Dr. Jude Alsarraj, who’s a PhD, and I felt like we had to do something about [the mistrust of authorities in our community]. It’s like we went back to college. At that point, every day, we sat down and devoured the most recent, trustworthy research articles, and we read through them and interpreted them, teased out the data, put them in the language that our community would understand. Then the media department in our organization collected questions from the community and helped us prepare scripts and short videos of [ourselves]. They put bilingual subtitles on [the scripts], so that we could make our own videos to educate our community on a weekly basis, sometimes even a twice-a-week basis.”
[29:57] “Social justice matters more than anything. Without health equity, we simply cannot talk about health care. All of us providers have the responsibility medically and morally to advocate for our patients. Even the most informed, educated, and resourceful patients need their doctors to sometimes speak on their behalf when they’re really sick. Not to mention my patients who are people of color, immigrants, and non-English speakers — I happen to know what it's like to be in that position.”