Ocean City Doctor Has A Passion To Educate

Ocean City Doctor Has A Passion To Educate
everyday10

OCEAN CITY – With over 17 years of service to Ocean City and a pledge to provide comprehensive, convenient and consistent health care every day of the year, 75th Street Medical and 126th Street Medical promise to provide full service health care to locals and visitors alike.

Dr. Victor Gong, M.D., owner of 75th Street Medical and 126th Street Medical and Doctor’s Weight and Wellness Center, came to the area over 18 years ago.

“I came to do some wind-surfing down here and I fell in love with the resort,” he said.

Gong began with a doctor’s house call network in the area, but after about a year he decided to set-up shop on 75th Street, opening the 75th Street Medical Center. A few years later, he expanded to 126th Street and later to the Doctor’s Weight and Wellness Center on 126th Street.

Gong explained that the centers provide not only emergency care, but also comprehensive, year-round care. The three major concentrations are family practice, urgent care and weight loss and wellness. Gong noted one of the biggest misconceptions about the facility is that it doesn’t provide family care. Check-ups, X-rays, flu-shots and school physicals are just a few of the family care amenities provided.

While Gong provides health care for the routine check-ups, vaccines and physicals, there are, of course, emergency situations that are also addressed. Emergencies and urgent care range from burns to earaches to fractures. Because urgent care rarely falls within the normal work day hours, Gong is open seven days a week with late hours to accommodate people in need of urgent care.

After recognizing the need for specialized weight loss and wellness attention, Gong opened the Weight Loss and Wellness Center. In opening the center, Gong aimed to maximize the life and health of people, through not only weight loss, but also through education in a variety of areas. Weight control, smoking cessation, nutritional medicine, vitamin programs and athletic enhancement programs are just a few of the programs provided at the wellness center. Gong and his specialized team also work to target obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes.

“It’s tough for the average physician to make time for that. Our specialized team works to customize programs that work for our patients,” Gong said. “We spend time finding out about our patients’ lifestyle and give them detailed, motivational information.”

For Gong, the Weight Loss and Wellness Center is the ultimate in preventative medicine.

“That’s really my passion, educating patients and giving them simple, inspirational information that can apply to their lives,” said Gong. “We want to empower people through education so they can help themselves.”

Through Gong’s three health establishments, he has treated and improved the lives of thousands and thousands of visitors and residents over the past 17 years. Although he has maintained his business and expanded, Gong acknowledged that the medical field is as competitive as any other business in town, adding that only the best survive.

To stay competitive, Gong brings in a variety of well-qualified doctors in the summer. Six doctors are employed in the summer at 75th Street Medical to handle the increase in business. In the summer, the medical centers are open as late as 4 a.m. Gong also promises minimal wait.  “We try to be efficient because people are busy,” he said.

Despite the inevitable lull in business in the off-season, Dr. Gong stays open all week long. “It’s slow, but we stay open to provide the service,” he said.

Gong also noted consistency and convenience as unique factors that set his establishments apart from most.

“Consistency and convenience would probably be the big things we try to do,” he said.

To access the medical centers from home, patients can visit the company’s website, which provides a variety of educational information, as well as the chance to e-mail questions over follow-up care or ailments.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of 75th Street and 126th Street Medical is the mascot, Abbey, a yellow lab who keeps visitors company while they wait. Gong’s dog accompanies him to work each day and spends her time in the office or in her doghouse at the front of the building. Gong noted the ease that Abbey can bring to anxious patients, adding that many people return just to play with Abbey.

For Gong, his years providing medical care to the area has been both rewarding and time consuming. Having written two ooks and done over 200 TV interviews, 300 newspaper articles, numerous community lectures and a monthly healthy cooking spot on WMDT, Gong has made it his goal to educate the community.