BY MARY BETH MARTIN

BY MARY BETH MARTIN

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

A new physician—all of six feet four inches tall—recently joined the staff at the Rappahannock Medical Center following the retirement of Dr. Werner Krebser in July.

His name is Dr. John McCue, but everyone calls him Jack. “It’s an old IrishCatholic habit of calling John, “Jack,” he said.

Sitting in his sunny office in Washington, his blue eyes sparkled as he talked about the serendipitous events that led to his joining the family practice.

McCue, 43, also works as an Emergency Room doctor at the Fauquier Hospital, a job he has had since 1994.

“I like the E.R.,” he said. “It’s fun and exciting, but I miss the follow-up with patients and families. It makes treatment difficult. With family practice, I get the whole motion picture instead of one slide.”

“I wanted a balance with the E.R. I said a prayer one night because the E.R. is so hectic and Jerry (Dr. Martin) called the following day.”

McCue began working at the medical center on some Fridays and Saturdays since November, and has been working steadily for two weeks since Dr. Martin took time off for elective surgery.

“I think God was looking down and helping out. The timing was perfect,” McCue said. Knowing his patients

“The best part of family practice medicine is talking to people and finding out about them, getting to know the family, seeing the children grow.”

His background in E.R. medicine makes him more tuned in to acute medical problems like stroke, hypertensive crisis and heart attack, he said. “It sharpens the senses.”

“In this practice, the patients are wonderful. They have lived here for years. In the E.R. patients don’t know you and they have a tendency to take you for granted. Here I feel appreciated. The patients are great. I found when I work here, I feel at peace,” he said.