Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Country Doctor’ on HBO Max, a Documentary Profile of a Selfless Oklahoma Physician Navigating a For-Profit Healthcare Milieu

By John Serba

Country Doctor (now streaming on HBO Max) is among a handful of exceedingly well-done, relevant and topical documentaries produced and released by HBO in the last year. This 38-minute short from veteran documentary directors Nick Doob and Shari Cookson tackles an overlooked slice of the deeply troubled pie that is the American healthcare system: the plight of rural hospitals. The filmmakers followed one doctor who does his damnedest to provide care for the residents of tiny Fairfax, Oklahoma, which, to no one’s surprise, is easier said than done in this late-capitalism world.

COUNTRY DOCTOR: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Full disclosure: This is not a depressing downer of a story. In some ways, it’s sad. In another, it’s quite hopeful. Both are duly represented by Dr. James Graham, who’s been one of very few physicians working in Fairfax. An opening title card drops a shocking stat: In rural America, there’s on average one doctor for 2,500 residents. Fairfax’s population is 1,263. Graham is one of two doctors at Fairfax Community Hospital; he also works at three other clinics, a retirement home 60 miles away and does house calls (note to any younger readers out there: doctors used to come to your house to treat you) for people who have no money to pay him but who sneak fresh tomatoes, okra and other produce into the bed of his truck as a thank you. He’s been the doctor in this community for 41 years. He knows his patients inside and out and upside-down, some of them for their entire lives. There’s the salt of the earth, and then there’s Dr. Graham.

It’s 2019. As he drives from hospital to clinics to homes, he explains the plight of Fairfax. It’s a hard-bitten town that, in his words, is “a little bit low” on the socio-economic side of things. It’s been devastated by two tornadoes, and some of the buildings are still in a state of disrepair. He hasn’t escaped the hardship – not at all. His alcoholic stepfather abused him and, especially, his sisters. His mother had kidney disease, and as a kid, he learned to do dialysis to help her. It seems he may have inherited that disease, as he’s had two kidney transplants and has weakened immunity because of it. He can relate to his patients deeply. “I learned from being poor,” he says. “I learned from being hungry.”

We hang out with him as he visits patients. One elderly man deals with chronic pain, and seems down, on the verge of hopelessness. “You’re not thinking suicide?”, Dr. Graham asks. There’s a long pause, and the patient replies, somewhat unconvincingly, “Probably not.” Dr. Graham proceeds to tell him that he’s valuable and loved and everyone wants him around, and he’s not just blowing smoke. He knows this man, surely better than most doctors know their patients, like a friend, perhaps. The man’s wife has been standing there the entire time, brow furrowed, a deep frown on her face. Dr. Graham hugs the man. Our hearts break a little, but hopefully swell a little more.

There seems to have been a time when Dr. Graham may have been paid with less than tomatoes and okra, too. Fairfax Community Hospital filed for bankruptcy in 2019 when its owner was under fire for fraud. The hospital was down to eight employees and nobody was getting paid for months. It was facing the fate of more than 100 hospitals in rural areas that closed in recent years. The camera follows Dr. Graham as he visits politicians at the state capitol; he’s met with grave faces and concern but no tangible help – thoughts and prayers, I guess. Creditors are putting the hospital on the auction block, and Joe and Carol Conner, publishers of the Fairfax Chief newspaper – notably a rare example of a smalltown newspaper still surviving – scope out the prospective buyers. They’re invested in their community, and don’t want to see the hospital bought by someone who’s going to scrape every last penny out of the place and then shut it down. Sellers insist they won’t sell to predatory parties, and will prioritize the community’s wellbeing over profit. But they sell to the highest bidder anyway.

Photo: HBO

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Other recent can’t-miss socially relevant HBO documentaries: The Devil is Busy, about hardship at a Georgia abortion clinic; Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud, a profile of a humanist journalist killed in the Russia-Ukraine war; and The Alabama Solution, an expose about human-rights violations in the Alabama prison system.

Performance Worth Watching: Dr. Graham. Salt. Of. The. Earth.

Memorable Dialogue: Graham on why profiteers care more about money than the health of their fellow citizens: “It’s getting back to being Americans trying to help each other, and we just have lost that thought.”

An interviewee via voiceover, describing Dr. Graham: “He knows (his patients) as whole people, not just (people) he sees when they’re sick.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: So what’s hopeful about Country Doctor? That buyer, Dr. Elizabeth Pusey, is a radiologist who owns an investment company. She did the right thing, investing in Fairfax Hospital’s renovations and making it a robust, profitable operation (and a quick internet search reveals that she still is doing the right thing – it’s been renamed Rural Wellness Fairfax, and Dr. Graham is its medical director). 

Of course, the previous sentence has a highly problematic word in it, and I’m sure you clocked it right away: profitable. That’s why Dr. Graham and many of the locals are suspicious of Dr. Pusey’s motivation. The previous three management companies that owned Fairfax Hospital contributed to its near-downfall, and you can’t blame them for wondering if the fourth would be any better. Like Dr. Pusey, they’ve all been outsiders, but the fact that she seems to have figured out how to make money and have the community’s best interests in mind feels miraculous. If only every rural hospital had such a benefactor. If only the American healthcare system wasn’t for-profit. If only a doctor visit or hospital stay or prescription medicine weren’t so damn expensive. If only, to parrot and paraphrase Dr. Graham, Americans with means thought about more than just themselves and their bank accounts. 

Using a stripped-down, bare-bones verite style that very much suits the topic they’re addressing, Doob and Cookson paint a very vivid portrait of a community in peril due to rampant, unchecked, unfettered capitalism. We can only hope more physicians embody Dr. Graham’s philosophy of kindness and selflessness; using him as an example of principled ethics, Country Doctor may function as an inspirational work. These recent HBO docs have profiled good people doing good things, and this humble little film may be the most hopeful one yet. 

Our Call: During a time of such widespread duress, Country Doctor is a feelgood story that might be just what the doctor ordered. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.