Dr. Saulius Skeivys is the first member of his family—originally from Lithuania—to be born in the United States. He practices medicine in Woodside, Queens, in New York.“When I travel through Queens,” he explains, “they say that that train passes through 170 different cultures. In the same way, 170 different cultures pass through my clinic.”
He’s a primary care physician and a member of SOMOS, a network of doctors in New York who attend to vulnerable communities.
Skeivys feels that working with this network has many positive aspects: “SOMOS knows public resources,” he explains, “and allows us doctors to decide what’s important for the patient, so we can find the most efficacious way to give them what they need.”
“I love practicing authentic medicine,” he says, “not corporate medicine; not having them tell me what to give the patient or where to send them.”
His criterion is always to do what’s best for people. “I send the patient,” he says, “where I think they’ll receive the best care, or in the case of prescriptions, the best price.”
For him, “medicine is a service, not a product. As a service, I don’t want to offer it as if I were a car salesman, but as a professional, so details matter. That’s what makes a professional.”
Dr. Skeivys strives to take care of each and every patient while taking into account their language and culture: he speaks Spanish so as to have a better relationship with Hispanics, for example. He makes himself totally available: “I give my telephone number to all those who come to my office. They can call me 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I’m key for them,” he says.
