“When I first met him, I was nervous about it,” Dr. Schweitzer admits. “But I'm the guy who's been doing it for 12 years. He's the guy who wants to learn.”
Mr. Levy is “indefatigable,” Dr. Schweitzer adds. “He was always the most prepared for any clinic groups. Other people [students] would put together two- or three-page summaries on their subject. He'd come with a whole PowerPoint presentation.”
During a recent hospital rotation, Mr. Levy stepped in to change the bedpan of a patient with dementia who shunned female nurses. When a psychotic patient refused to give any response to a treatment team but ask for ice cream, Mr. Levy went out and got her the treat.
“He built an immense trust with this patient with a small act of kindness,” says psychiatrist Usha Parthasarthi, his 32-year-old supervisor. “No job was too small for him.”
Thinking on his feet
Although he's not a doctor yet, Mr. Levy sees similarities between his new profession and the CEO life he left behind.
Both require the same basic ingredients: hard slogging, enthusiasm and a “shared respect for other people.” But not all CEOs are created equal. “I don't think that respect for other people is a commodity that's very common among CEOs these days,” he says.
His decision to specialize in emergency medicine relates even more directly to the corporate boss playbook. “It keeps my very ADD [attention deficit disorder] mind charged up,” he jokes, adding on a serious note: “I like to be busy all the time.… When you talk about being a CEO, it's a very generalist type of job. Every phone call you take is different and every day is different. You learn to think on your feet. In that regard, it's very similar to emergency medicine.”
Still, there's at least one difference: the comfort of emergency room attire. “There aren't many jobs like this that you can go to work in your pyjamas,” he says. “It's great. I love it.”
