From Ghana to Iowa: Boateng makes medical journey

Dr. Joseph Boateng had quite the journey before landing in Creston.

About two months ago, Boateng began filling in for Dr. Steve Reeves at Greater Regional Medical Center's Morning Star Internal Medicine Clinic in an attempt to "stop the rat race and cut back" from his Las Vegas-area job as a hospitalist at Carson Valley Medical Center and medical director of an intensive care unit.

"I have gotten to the point where I've done quite a lot of things," Boateng explained. "I was looking for a quieter kind of practice."

As of Monday, Boateng found that practice by permanently joining Reeves and Physician Assistant Darla Sobotka as an internal medicine physician at Morning Star.

"The clinic has been busy and successful to the point where I wasn't able to take any more new patients, but yet the need is there," said Reeves. "He was such a good fit, we got along so well and patients liked him so much we offered him a position. I'm very excited he took it."

This fit almost occurred a year ago when Boateng was to tour Greater Regional while looking for more flexible work in hospitals, but a snow storm canceled the trip.

Now that he's made it to the area, Boateng has found the hospital and community are just what he was looking for.

"I love the place," he said. "The place is quiet and the people are nice. It's a small community with a laid back kind of life, and I said maybe this is what I'm looking for."

Getting a shot at the same position twice is unique, almost as unique as the 58-year-old doctor's path to a medical practice in Creston.

Medical makings

Boateng was raised thousands of miles away, but this didn't mean his childhood dreams were any different than those seen in Iowa's youth.

At age 12, Boateng became interested in medicine after learning the identity of tennis players he retrieved stray balls for in his small hometown in Ghana.

"I got to know they were doctors, and I thought I would like to be like that," Boateng said.

The interest stuck through Ghana's seven-year "high school" program and led Boateng straight to the University of Ghana for medical school after graduation.

With knowledge gained at the university and through training in Cambridge, England, Boateng began 12 years of medical practice in Ghana. It's here where Boateng says he gained a multitude of his skills.

Differences

Because Ghana lacks America's access to medical technology, Boateng said doctors are trained to use more hands-on diagnosing.

"The first thing I noticed when I came to the U.S. was the way doctors use technology," said Boateng. "I had doctors who immediately when they heard a murmur would do a cardiogram. We tended to do a lot more history and physical work before using investigative processes."

After arriving in the U.S. in 1991, Boateng became accustom to the technology saying it helped him "diagnose much more positively," but there still was one major difference between the two countries — health insurance.

"We concentrated more on making a diagnosis and treating a patient rather than worrying about who's going to pay for what," Boateng said. "It's really helped me because anytime I'm asking for any kind of test the question I ask myself is why am I doing this. There are certain tests I don't just do because it's routine. Sometimes I think it saves the patient some money."

Boateng would make stops in New York, New Hampshire, Baltimore, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Johns Hopkins University Medical School while still remembering where he came from.

Giving back

He visits Ghana every three months and has started the largest private hospital and three public libraries there.

The 150-bed hospital will be the first private tertiary hospital in the country when finished, and will contain modern equipment and technology.

"Some people eventually need some tests, and if it's not there, it's not there," said Boateng. "We are trying to provide that."

Every year since 2007 Boateng and volunteers have spent about five weeks turning buildings into libraries filled with donated books through the Ghana Rural Library Project, which he started and where his daughter serves as executive director.

"The whole idea is to help these kids literally read themselves out of poverty," Boateng said. "It's my way of contributing to educating children because my story is exactly like that. The reading really helped me."

Even with the endeavors back home, Boateng plans to use his experience to help with patient care before retiring from Greater Regional.

"My hope is that I'll stay here and help the hospital as much as I can," said Boateng.

Those at Greater Regional hope Boateng sticks around for retirement there, as well.

"He's a very skilled physician," said Reeves. "I think he's a great addition to the practice, hospital and community."