The Doctor Dance: Confessions of a Beverly Hills Doctor's Wife

By Jennie Louise Frankel, Terrie Maxine Frankel and Joseph E. Gutierrez, MD, FACS

"Want to be respected? Spend BIG money? Shop till you drop? Feel like you're better than everybody else... because you ARE? It's SIMPLE, it's EASY... easier than you think! Marry a Beverly Hills Doctor!"

The Doctor Dance - Confessions of a Beverly Hills Doctors Wife is a non-fiction tell all book chronicling the true experiences of an 'almost' dutiful wife of a Board Certified Infectious Disease Specialist in Beverly Hills. As manager of her husband's office, Jennie Louise Frankel noted the miracles and mistakes, amorous adventures, triumphant accomplishments and greed of doctors around her. Her lavish and extravagant lifestyle, was funded by insurance companies, drug conglomerates and willing patients seeking answers from doctors whose sometimes less than altruistic motives influenced their patients' care.

The title "The Doctor Dance" was chosen because Jennie noticed that patients were often passed around from specialist to specialist who stood in line to sign the dance cards of the "good patients": those with private medical insurance; those with a terminal illness and three operations to go; those who were famous.

This New York Times Best Selling Author ("You'll Never Make Love In This Town Again" - 450,000 copies sold) humorously shines a surgical bright white light on a group of professionals whose rarified universe she witnessed first hand.

In his Foreword to The Doctor Dance, Dr. Joseph E. Gutierrez, MD FAC, points out that "Many of the abuses and the shocking behavior here recounted by Jennie are largely addressed today by the American Medical Association's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, etc." Yet, these experiences happened just the same during the ten years Jennie managed her husbands' office. So, put on your paper gown, prepare for a cold stethoscope, breathe deeply, bend over and cough. After reading this profoundly candid 'patient primer', you may never 'open up and say ahhh' the same way again!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 3, 2013
• ISBN: 9780967935607

Book preview

Dance."

Chapter One

AN EXCLUSIVE CLUB…

To live the life of a Beverly Hills doctor's wife is like taking a trip to The Twilight Zone. One rarely, if ever, has to deal with the difficult task of relating to the real world. Values are re-arranged, life takes on a rose-colored tint — without ever having to put on the glasses. It is an experience worth sharing.

Imagine belonging to an exclusive club in which your every wish is granted. A club where the privileged members' stomping grounds include: country clubs, polo fields, Rodeo Drive, Cartier, Tiffany & Co., Spago's and The Polo Lounge. It's a star-spangled club filled with movie stars, a night at the Oscars, jewels, satin, lace and razzle-dazzle. A club most people could only imagine or dream about — one where life is truly, a bowl of cherries. Sound intriguing? Too good to be true?

To tell the complete story with as much honesty as humanly possible, I must tell you this club also has a darker side. To belong to this club a person must adhere to a secret code of honor, where quiet compliance is expected and the witnessing of crimes of passion and greed is commonplace. To be a member you must watch in silence as good old boys talk candidly about their triumphs, their mistakes, good patients (those with private insurance), bad patients (the uninsured)… and their take for the week. It's a club to which you are accepted as a crony privy to a type of insider trading if you will, trusted because you are thought to treasure your position in society — a position you've attained because of your membership in the club. By virtue of this membership you are believed to possess a sense of complacency that will not allow you to expose, take a stand or stir the pot. Here, all members feel secure in the knowing that each will cling at all costs to the lofty station in life they've managed to attain by virtue of having married well.

This is a private club filled with high teas, luncheons, charity balls and decisions such as whether to buy the Mercedes sports car or the top of the line Ferrari or whether to go to Bora Bora or take that luxurious free trip a drug company has offered because of your husband's compliance with their prescription drug quota for a high priced antibiotic. It isn't a club you can join. You must marry into