About Jerald Bybee, MD

"I graduated from high school in Davenport, Iowa in 1971 and received by M.D. degree from the University of Iowa in 1978. During my undergraduate college years, I worked in a radiation lab doing cancer research and did surgery on rats (Not that they appreciated my efforts). 

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I completed residency in Family Medicine in Davenport, Iowa from 1978 to 1981. 

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In 1980, I decided I wanted to come to Maquoketa to practice and actually started working at the Maquoketa Family Clinic as well as the Jackson County Public hospital part time on weekends and overnights. 

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I have delivered about 1,000 babies. I have delivered the babies of the babies that I have delivered. I have done about 3,000 colonoscopies and sadly have found many cancers (Get your colonoscopy if you're over age 45). I probably spent close to 2,000 nights at the Jackson County Public Hospital and was in the hospital more than once a day, on the average, for 40 years. Sometimes it seemed that I went back to the hospital 10 times in a day, and that might be close to the truth. I have set 100s of broken arms and have probably stitched about "a mile" of cuts - 1 inch at a time. 

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I have been married to my wife, Caroline, for 22 years. Between us, we have 9 children and will soon welcome our 14th grandchild. 

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In the past we liked to camp a lot and to go out west and see the mountains. We still enjoy that, but at this time our favorite vacation is anywhere one of our children or grandchildren are. 

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I have always been a nerdy kid and liked knowing and learning things. The ability to constantly learn new things and try to help people, solve problems, and try to fix things have always given me a lot of joy. 

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In terms of memorable events, in a personal life, and in a medical practice, you can only imagine the joys and tragedies that have come and gone. I came to Maquoketa because I felt that the knowledge and skills that I learned would be best put to use in a town of about this size where there were not any specialists. That has proven to be the case, and I am positive that all of the physicians in Maquoketa would agree with me, that there are many people that were helped by us being here, that would not have been the case if we had taken an easier job in a big city. 

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The world has changed during my career, and it will continue to change. However, people still want the one-on-one interaction face to face with a medical provider. The insurance companies might try to make you do it with artificial intelligence and a computer screen, but I do not think that's going to go over very well. It will likely come up with a diagnosis and plan, but people will not be satisfied. The Nurse Practitioners and Physicians Assistants have helped to fill the gap that was left when many doctors quit being general practitioners and started specializing. The mid-levels, as they were called, do as great of a job and in many cases better, than we did as doctors. When they become specialists, doctors feel that they have to live in a big city and leave the small towns to fend for themselves. When I started practicing medicine, many of the small towns still had a doctor, but they are essentially gone now. 

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I hope that in the future, the clinic, hospital and Maquoketa area will continue to thrive and that the continued success of the clinic will be a valuable addition to everyone. 

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In the end, we will need each other in order to survive and flourish."

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- Dr. Jerald Bybee