The path of this doctor has been charged with a particular desire to offer his experience and knowledge in favor of Puerto Ricans.
Dr. Jaime Rivera Dueño, former Secretary of Health and current medical consultant for the Puerto Rico Hospital Association. Photo: Medicine and Public Health Magazine. Fabiola Square.
A well-known saying goes that “everything depends on the color of the glass you look at it with”. Success might be like a crystal, it all depends on how you get there. For some, it can represent fame and fortune. But for others, like Dr. Jaime Rivera Dueño, success comes from the effort of each person. And it is that from childhood and his subsequent encounter with the medicinethe road to success of this doctor has been charged with a particular desire to offer his experience and knowledge in favor of Puerto Ricans.
His first years in Ponce
The journey through the life of Dr. Rivera Dueño began in the town of Ponce, where he was bornand he lived various experiences that if he had not faced them, his life would have taken a different course. In a time of economic crisis, his parents decided to emigrate to New York, but a severe asthma attack prevented him from leaving the country and he was raised by a grandmother and an uncle who “supported me at that time.”
It was at the Escuela Superior de Ponce, the so-called “Ponce High”, where his friendship with Elín Ortiz (another Ponceño who would later become a successful actor and television producer), led him to write scripts and present comedy plays. The medicine It was not yet in his plans. “I got quite involved in the drama area. Later, I got a scholarship to study at the University of Puerto Rico. My wish was to study drama or theater production. But they invited me to go to Poli, the Polytechnic Institute in San Germán (now the San Germán campus of the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico) to see a play. I was so excited that night that I decided I wanted to go study there. The interesting thing was that the Poli had no course as per of drama because that was elective. So without much thought I decided to take biology and chemistry. I participated in many plays, but I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry,” said Rivera Dueño.
From drama to medicine
From San Germán he managed to graduate in three years and when he saw that his friends were accepted in Schools of Medicine in and out of Puerto Rico, he wanted to try his luck in that field of work as well. “When I finished, in my mind I said theater production. But since I didn’t have much of a way out with the drama issue, I said, well, let me apply to the School of Medicine (from the University of Puerto Rico) to see what happens. I applied and they took me, ”recalled her proud husband, father of three daughters and grandfather of three grandchildren.
following start medicine In 1956, Rivera Dueño gradually discovered the importance of this profession and learned from his teachers what he calls the art of medicine. “I had the happiness of having some extraordinary teachers. How much did they do with a simple stethoscope, what today machines are required and different things they did with their ears. They had a skill, what I call the art of medicine. Simply with a good history and a good physical examination of the patient, they might reach conclusions that were eventually confirmed with the modern methods that were available to do it. So that impressed me. I continued to auscultate areas of interest within the medicine and I realized that the area that most attracted me was pediatrics”, he said.
service to his people
In 1960 and following having completed his studies in medicine, worked for several years in Georgia as director of a department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Later, he returned to Puerto Rico to do his residency in Pediatrics and it was there that he began to serve his country in a different way. During those years, he became aware of the situation the Island was experiencing regarding the health of children and, according to him, he was “quite active in speaking publicly regarding things that were not being done well.” “The governor, Don Luis A. Ferré appointed Dr. (Ernesto) Colón Yordán as Secretary of Health. As I continued to speak publicly regarding the things that were bad, one day Dr. Colón Yordán called me and told me, young man, you are talking a lot regarding the problems that exist here in the area of pediatric health. I have a position here as director of mothers and children, do you accept it or shut up? So obviously I was not going to shut up, I accepted the position and there they gave me the title of assistant secretary for mothers and children. And that’s how I began to get involved in the aspect of government, in health services, ”he explained, who during his time in that position excelled in working with Head Start programs in the country.
That job with Head Start brought him to the United States as General Health Administrator, where he gained experience managing financial administration and working with health programs in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. “That gave me an opportunity to see what was being done in all these places and at the same time I began to introduce changes in the way of operating the employees of the Federal Health Government. I put them to work in the communities so that they might feel exactly what was happening there,” said Rivera Dueño, who also participated in the creation of new laws at the federal level to provide funds for poor patients and for complex health conditions.
The path of this doctor has been charged with a particular desire to offer his experience and knowledge in favor of Puerto Ricans.
From doctor to Secretary of Health
At the end of his participation in the federal government, he was recruited by the then mayor of San Juan, Carlos Romero Barceló to direct the health services of the capital. When Barceló was elected governor of Puerto Rico, he appointed him the country’s Secretary of Health. “I found out from the press because he never told me personally. Obviously he was not going to say no, first because he was not going to make him look bad and second, because it was a great opportunity to continue taking those ideas and those concepts to a level for all of Puerto Rico, ”he recalled.
During his tenure as secretary of the Department of Health, which spanned from 1977 to 1984, he highlighted several important changes in that agency. The first, to bring health services to municipalities that did not have doctors to care for the population. “We found that there were 16 towns in Puerto Rico that did not have a single doctor, not a practitioner, nothing. What they did have were some very good nurses that were front and center. That’s when it occurred to me to create the Public Service Law, which meant that all the people who graduated at that time, both from medicine such as nursing, laboratory, and pharmacy, they had to do one year of public service before being formally licensed. At first it caused a bit of a stir, but I feel very proud because the feedback that I got years later from those people who went to those sites was very nice, ”he said.
Another change that he made in the Department of Health was the establishment of the health system by levels: primary, secondary and tertiary. “The definition was in terms of personnel, that is, what personnel might go, at what level. For example, primary physician and general practitioner at the primary level, primary physician and some specialists at the secondary level, and sub-specialized physician at the tertiary level. We define the primary level as prevention. I never forget that we did a pilot study in Sabana Grande, Lajas and San Germán. We had a team of professionals: there were health educators, social workers, mental health nurses, etc. and a service was established so that when the patient arrived at the emergency room there was a doctor prepared to define whether it was a mental health case or a physical health case. Most of the cases that came did not have anything physical, it was mostly in the mental health area. Since then I have been talking regarding the mental health problem in Puerto Rico,” he specified.
After passing through the Department of Health, Rivera Dueño continued to practice pediatrics and was medical director of several hospital institutions, including the HIMA San Pablo hospitals, of which he was the head of hospital for 20 years. Chief Medical Officer. In addition, he was president and Dean for several years of the School of Medicine from Ponce. He retired from practice a year ago, but continues to be active on the boards of directors of different services, such as the Hall of Fame of the Medicine Puerto Rican, which she considers one of her legacies. “We are introducing Puerto Rico to incredible people who gave so much to the country and who for some reason have gone unnoticed. That is part of my participation in that Hall of Fame group and of course, always continue to help the doctors who are rising to get the resources so that they can study and not have any suffering while they do their specialties, ”he indicated.
Music and reading in your life
Out of the medicine, this ponceño finds in music and reading to achieve the balance he needs in his life. “The balance can be with art, with music, sports, etc., where you can get out of where you are to take a break, as we say, and be able to balance your life. My thing is music, for example, and reading. My uncle was a teacher, but one of those teachers from before, and he was fascinated by music, he was fascinated by reading. I learned reading from him and I learned music from him. I learned classical music with him. He had some radio stations with classical music and he taught me, he directed me”, evoked the doctor, who shares this taste for music with other people since several times a year he offers talks regarding the musical evolution of Puerto Rico, Europe, Latin America , among others, as requested.
Success is synonymous with effort
How does a person who has lived through everything define success? After a short pause, a simple answer. “Success is something that comes from the effort you make to get things, and if you don’t make the effort to get something, you won’t be successful. Success is the culmination of many efforts that, done with the best of intentions, are achieved. We have to see it that way so that we can feel proud and always give thanks to God that we can achieve success ”, he concluded.
