On Call: An Original Short Story - Plot & Excerpts
Louis Francis Welcome could do a lot of things well, but doing nothing was not one of them. His desk at the Washington, D.C. Physician Wellness Office, one of four cubicle work areas jammed inside 850 square feet, had never been so uncluttered. On a typical midafternoon, the voicemail light on Lou’s Nortel telephone would be blinking red—a harbinger that one or more of his doctor clients needed advice and support in their recovery from mental illness, behavioral problems, or drug and alcohol abuse. At the moment, that light was dark, as it had been for much of the past several days. Lou got paid to manage cases and monitor the progress of his assigned physicians, with the expressed goals of guiding them into recovery and eventually getting surrendered licenses reinstated. The holiday season inevitably brought an influx of new docs, often ordered to the PWO by the D.C. Board of Medicine. But not recently. He strongly suspected the lack of clients did not indicate a dwindling need for PWO services.
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