Doctor cards help Pennsylvania hospital put a human face on patient care

The photo cards help patients recognize their physicians and other caregivers.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. April 16, 2007.

Honus Wagner's 1909 baseball card sold for $2.35 million earlier this year, so how much would the card of cardiologist Roddy Canosa, DO, fetch?

Not much, he admits.

But that hasn't stopped patients from keeping Dr. Canosa's photo card when he sees them at Ephrata (Pa.) Community Hospital. He's one of dozens of physicians featured in doctor cards at the hospital.

The facility hands out the images to new patients to help them identify doctors, physician assistants and other health care professionals who come to their bedside. Doctors and patients liken them to baseball cards, but these are about connecting with patients, not home runs and batting average.

"It doesn't have my golf score, but maybe that's a good thing," Dr. Canosa joked.

The cards are bigger than the typical ones you might find clipped to a child's bicycle spokes. These 5½-inch by 8½-inch cards feature several photos and names of doctors from practices in town, kind of a team snapshot of internists, cardiologists, surgeons and other physicians.

Some cards are blank on the back while others have a simple description of what the physician's practice does, such as provide heart care.

"We kind of jokingly call them physician trading cards," said hospital spokeswoman Joanne Eshelman. "I have the complete set. I feel like a collector."

The health profession isn't the only one to tap the card craze. Some communities circulate cop cards of police officers that boast personal information and a message from the officer. Rabbi trading cards feature great rabbis of certain decades and include one series of color photos of rabbis in action during Jewish holidays.