When Eric Weber, Medical Director for Liberty Commons and Broad Reach Hospice, finished his residency at Temple Hospital in Philadelphia in 1996, he had one clear idea about where he would practice:

“I wanted to live on the water,” he recalls. “I looked at opportunities from Maryland to Maine, and decided to come to Cape Cod Health Care.”

During his residency he had been working in nursing homes as well as regular hospital shifts. It was a way to make more income and broaden his work – “moonlighting,” he smiles -- so when he arrived on the Cape he continued. By 2000 he had joined Emerald Physicians, and when the retiring medical director at Liberty Commons suggested that Weber would be a great fit to replace him, Eric stepped up into that role in 2004.

“I take care of executive medical decisions,” he explains. “I make sure everything done medically is sound and in compliance. I’m the one who will sign off on an incident report, for example, if someone falls. At the end of the day, I’m the bottom line.”

That applies both for Liberty Commons and hospice, but Dr. Weber also takes on personal “rounds,” seeing a third of the people at the Commons as their primary care physician during twice-weekly visits. “I’m also pretty much always on call, so if there’s a situation that merits collaboration with the full-time nurse practitioner, I’m always available.”

All this sounds like full-time work, but is common with medical directors in facilities like Broad Reach, Eric also has a private practice. He is in a group in Yarmouth that has a concierge style of service, meaning he doctors 600 patients who enroll as members of the practice and are assured he will personally be available. “In other practice settings I was seeing as many as 38 people a day,” he says. “Now I might see eight on a busy day. I find it to be much better. No one wants to be rushed going to the doctor. They want to be listened to and taken seriously.”

His passion for this started at Broad Reach as well, where he has always been able to take the time to make rounds and balance administrative responsibilities, as well as work with the hospice team.

“Things are always changing,” he says. “Before COVID, we were doing some experimenting with telehealth visits that now are very common. Back then it was a computer with a video screen, and now it’s iPads. That doesn’t replace being present, but we have to keep up with the latest trends.”

His work schedule is varied, more flexible than if he was a hospital physician. That works well, says Weber, who lives in Hyannisport and has two children. Maybe an appreciation of that balance emerges from his decision not to start medical school until he was 28, beginning practice on the Cape when he was 35.

“I always was going to go to medical school,” he smiles. “It just took me a little time to get there.”