The Hotel Doctor

When a travel insurer sent me to the Airport Marriott, I remembered that the hotel hadn’t called in a year, so I decided to reintroduc...

Danielle, chief concierge of the Ritz-Carlton, calls when her allergies are acting up, but this wasn’t the reason. It was an awkward s...

“A guest would like to meet you at 4:15 in the lobby.” The caller was a concierge at the L.A. Hotel. “Is that all?” “I’m s...

His client had developed redness over her eyelids. Could I come? As I wrote last time, rashes are easy, and eyelid rashes mostly t...

Try to find The Hotel, A Week in the Life of the Plaza by Sonny Kleinfeld. Published in 1989, it’s long out of print, but you’ll love ...

No one came to the door after several knocks. I had spoken to the guest an hour before and announced my arrival time. Taking for g...

“A guest needs a doctor. Are you available?” “I am. If you connect me to his room, I’ll try to help.” My tone was businesslike...

Waiting at the local carwash, my eye ran over a sheet of ads along one wall. Among notices for personal injury lawyers, pest control, ...

“Doctor Lusman is out of town. Could you speak to a guest at the Fairmont?” That was a jolt. Lusman was an ambitious young doctor ...

A lady at the Westin wanted a housecall for her cough and fever. This seemed reasonable until I learned that she was under treatment for m...

“Our general manager’s husband has an eye problem. Could you see him this morning?” “I could.” “She’s wondering how much you’d cha...

Few things besides wine and cheese improve with time, but a personal database is among them.     It didn’t seem significant when I b...

In my dreams, agents write, suggesting a book, perhaps entitled “Hotel Doctor to the Stars.” So far these haven’t arrived, but physician...

In 1995, a man wearing only pajama bottoms dashed into the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel as I stood at the concierge’s desk. “Don...

If you receive an antibiotic for a respiratory infection, it’s probably a placebo because almost all respiratory infections are viruses....

It’s August. Wearing a suit and tie, I’m reminded of how much I resent hotels that refuse to let me park free. I only learned that the C...

The concierge expressed relief when I answered. A lady’s 11 year-old son was seriously ill, but the mother had refused to take him to an...

My relations with other Los Angeles housecall doctors are civilized but not close. As a result, when I leave town there’s only one collea...

  “...allo!!” shouted a little girl from her bed as I walked in, but that was her only English. Her French parents had called because she...

I’m an early riser, so the 5:30 a.m. phone call last week found me at my computer writing this blog. The caller was Le Montage, a luxury...