IN HIS 10 years as a doctor, Craig Greene has seen many patients. Some of them live here in Louisiana, where Greene is a surgeon at the Baton Rouge Orthopaedic Clinic.

But many more of his patients live around the world, in places where thousands of people suffered after natural disasters and needed treatment for a fractured bone or a dislocated joint.

Greene, 41, specializes in trauma care, sports medicine and joint replacements. His many patients keep him busy—Greene had appointments scheduled until 7 p.m. on a recent Wednesday—but he says each of them has helped him in some way, taught him some valuable lesson.

There are those he met in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, where so many people had been hurt that someone else always seemed to need surgery. It was those patients, he says, who showed him ways to use his skills not just to do a job, but to make a difference.

Doctors have a saying they use when someone says they haven’t seen a certain symptom or kind of injury before, Greene says: “It’s seen you,” even if you haven’t seen it.

“We live in a world of hurting people, and there’s plenty of opportunities around us … of how we can contribute to a better society,” Greene says. “It’s just a matter of us recognizing it, and are we willing to do the work to follow through on that.”

That’s what Greene says happened when he went to Haiti. Since then, he has been on medical mission trips to Colombia, Mexico, Honduras and Africa, where he has performed dozens of orthopedic surgeries in the aftermath of disasters.

MEDICINE WITH EMPATHY
Back at home, Greene meets a lot of patients who lead busy lives and aren’t sure what to do when they get injured while playing sports or in a car accident. Having surgery and recovering takes time and costs money, and it can be a stressful experience, Greene says.

“It’s complex,” he says. “Anyone who’s ever had a medical problem, going to the doctor is a big deal. We try to have a lot of empathy, care for everybody’s story. Everybody’s got a lot going on, and a lot hinges on what happens when we see them.”

Greene understands that. As a football player in high school and at LSU, he had six knee surgeries, which peaked his interest in becoming a doctor.

He attended medical school at LSU’s Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, and although his internships took him around the country, he returned home and has spent his entire career in the Baton Rouge Orthopaedic Clinic. In January, he finished a two-year stint as chief of surgery at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center.

Though he’s traveled the world because of his medical skills and desire to help others, Greene says practicing at home in Louisiana has offered many special opportunities, too.

OUTSIDE THE CLINIC
Always looking for ways to make it easier for people to overcome injuries and get back to their routines, Greene has put his skills to use outside of his clinic. He worked with Serta to develop a mattress line designed to address needs that his patients have told him about.

Half of the profits from Dr. Greene Sleep System mattress sales go to the Greene Charity, which funds humanitarian relief in disaster areas around the world.

“America has the best medicine on the planet. We have high standards. We have a cornucopia of technology,” and it’s important to share that with the world, Greene says.

But even though American medical training and technologies are useful when treating people abroad, there are problems with health care here, Greene says. It’s something that he ponders often.

“One of my driving forces is what is my contribution to more sustainable health care delivery that gives the most patients the best possible outcomes over the longest time period,” Greene says.

People want high-quality health care, but usually are not willing or able to pay a higher cost. No other sector is like that, which is making health care delivery increasingly unsustainable, he says.

The cost of health care today accounts for 20% of the U.S.’s GDP, he says.

STUDYING THE BUSINESS OF HEALTH CARE
Greene recently graduated from Yale University’s MBA program, which offers a focus on health care. Greene says the program intrigued him because he wanted to learn more about how business and society intersect, and how that affects his medical practice.

“Health care is changing so much, and a lot of times doctors aren’t at that table because, by our own fault, we’re too busy,” he says. “I need to be better equipped for my role in the changing landscape of health care.”

Overconsumption is one problem with America’s strained health care system, Greene says. Some people go to the emergency room for medical needs that aren’t urgent, and some doctors order too many tests, he says.

One option to lower costs is moving away from the “fee for service” model, Greene says. Instead of paying for each individual test a doctor requests, hospitals or clinics could pay a certain amount that covers tests for 90 days or some other specified period.

Greene says being a doctor in Louisiana—in Baton Rouge, not far from where he grew up in the small town of Maringouin—has given him both the ability and desire to tackle health care and other issues in the state. In fact, his passion for his home state and its people could eventually lead him into public service, he says. It would be the ultimate opportunity to put his knowledge to use and serve others.

In the meantime, Greene will stay busy seeing and treating his patients. They’re a constant reminder of the value of a person’s health, and of that person to the world around them.

“I’ve got a skill that helps people get back to helping society, and so I absolutely love my job,” he says. “I love the serving part of it; I love the clinic part of it where I visit with people.”

Craig Green, M.D.  |  Baton Rouge Orthopedic Clinic  |  225.924.2424  | brortho.com

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Dr. Greene with a patient at the Baton Rouge Orthopaedic Clinic.