Dr. Del Burchell has never seen himself as a solo act.
Ask him about singing, and he’ll tell you about the more than 30 years he’s celebrated with the choir at St. Pius. Ask about comedy, and he’ll tell you that in a duo act, he makes a pretty good straight man. Ask about practicing medicine, and he’ll tell you he doesn’t do that alone either.
“I like to joke that God gave me enough special patients to put up with the rest,” said Burchell, a hospitalist and internal medicine specialist with St. Elizabeth Physicians. “I’ve been blessed with some pretty amazing patients over the years. They become your friends. You dance through this life together.”
Celebrating the human side of medicine
Burchell, 63, has been doing this dance quite a while now, and his patients’ lives and stories spin and dip and twirl alongside his own. Some have been in his care for decades. All appreciate his warmth and human touch.
“Some have perhaps little contact with people, because of the stage of life they’re in,” he said. “A visit to their doctor becomes an important part of their routine. Being a people person, I’ve always liked to interact with patients. I like to use my humor, too. I can focus on your health issues but still make you laugh.”
Comedic relief in and out of the office
And Burchell likes to make people laugh. He has been doing comedy for about 30 years, mostly at area fund-raisers, like for St. Barbara Church in Erlanger, or roasts, like one for St. Barbara’s pastor, the Rev. John Sterling.
Burchell said his specialties are song parodies and playing the pope (he’s played Pope Francis, Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II) alongside the old “Saturday Night Live” character Father Guido Sarducci, as played by Jim Woods, a St. Elizabeth nurse anesthetist. “He does a very nice Father Guido,” Burchell said.
He’s also worked with St. Elizabeth’s resident comic, ER nurse Terry Foster, who has performed at Newport’s Funny Bone, at conventions in Atlantic City and Las Vegas and been on TLC’s “Untold Stories of the ER.”
Burchell’s comedy tastes run old school ““ “Jonathan Winters, George Gobel, Bob Newhart, Bob Hope,” he says ““ and he likes to push the envelope of good taste without pushing too far. “We dance around the line, but I’ve never had any negative feedback,” he said.
It’s been said laughter is the best medicine, and you’ll get no argument from Burchell. Humor isn’t just for the patients. “Through the years, I’ve seen things that would just break your heart,” he said. “Keeping a little levity in the moment to keep everyone relaxed and able to do what they do, I really see the value in that.”
A family man
Married 28 years to Jeanna, Burchell has five children: One daughter, Jill, and sons Tad, Tony, Patrick and Sam.
After years of juggling hospitalist and ER work with his internal medicine practice, he’ll focus on private practice only beginning this summer. “I always said it took more than one job to keep me happy, but it’s time to simplify,” he said.
He’ll keep showing his patients his funny side. And, he says, he’s no longer leery of showing his spiritual side as well.
“Over the years, I’ve changed my approach: I’m not at all afraid to share my faith with patients, where at some point in time I might have worried about offending them,” he said. “Now, I really think they appreciate it when I tell a patient that I’ll keep them in my prayers. I’m now convinced that means a lot to them.”
