UH-trained primary care provider offers down-to-earth approach to care
UH Clinical Update - January 2018
Megan Oberhauser, DO, recently completed her internal medicine residency training at University Hospitals Parma Medical Center. When the opportunity came for her first staff physician position, the choice was clear, she says. She opted to stay with UH.
“I really enjoyed my time at Parma and wanted to continue working with UH,” she says.
Dr. Oberhauser started seeing patients at UH Samaritan Primary Care in Ashland earlier this month. She says she enjoys the variety in her practice and the ability to tackle serious health issues with her patients.
“The biggest trends in primary care right now are probably the conditions that affect the Baby Boomer generation – diabetes, COPD, getting people to stop smoking and getting them to do preventative screenings like colonoscopies,” she says. “I like the variety of internal medicine, the broad spectrum of issues you see day to day. You don’t know what’s going to come through the door – that’s what drew me to it. You need to know a little about a lot of things.”
For Dr. Oberhauser, one of the most satisfying parts of her practice is establishing a rapport with her patients and meeting them where they are.
“Remaining down-to-earth is important to patients having a good experience,” she says. “I’m the only physician in my family, and I’m very attuned to the average person. It helps to be able to relate to patients on that level and help them understand their own disease processes.”
She also sees patient support and encouragement as integral parts of her role.
“Take something like quitting smoking,” she says. “There was a study that showed that it takes people an average of six times to quit. It’s so important to keep encouraging patients. Just because they weren’t able to do it once doesn’t mean that they should be upset about it. They just need to keep trying.”
As she establishes her practice at UH Samaritan, Dr. Oberhauser says she looks forward to furthering the relationships with UH specialists she developed while at UH Parma.
“I trained at Parma, so I’m very familiar with all the specialists there – it’s the next area to go from where we are here in Ashland if we don’t have the specialty here,” she says. “Knowing that group of people there is beneficial to my patients here.”