Dear Patients,
For thirty four years I have had both the pleasure and the privilege of being your physician. I will cherish these relationships we created together, but the time has come for me to announce my retirement from Wake Internal Medicine Consultants. My last day seeing patients will be at the end of April, 2025. Many of you heard this news directly from me during our visits over this last year. If I saw you in person, I suggested new doctors, or new physician assistants, within our practice with whom you can continue your ongoing medical care. If you have not seen me this past year, then be reassured that my established primary care patients can contact Wake Internal Medicine Consultants to become established with one of our providers, either our quality physician assistants, or physicians who are taking new patients. These providers will have instant access to all your medical records. Although my practice included seeing patients for pulmonary diseases and sleep medicine, going forward our practice will no longer offer a consultative pulmonary/sleep medicine service. Our general internal medicine providers are well equipped to handle many pulmonary and sleep problems. You can ask your primary care provider if your pulmonary problem needs to be referred to a pulmonary or sleep specialist. The pulmonary specialty services at both Rex-UNC and WakeMed, provide excellent care.
Retirement is bittersweet, and comes with some sadness. I will miss my patients, and miss the daily detective work of making a diagnosis. It has been very rewarding to help my patients navigate challenges of chronic medical illness. Even for my patients without chronic medical problems, I have enjoyed the challenge of educating patients about good evidence-based illness prevention, especially in this era where there is so much information available, not all of it evidence-based, and not all of it good advice.
All things change, and I look forward to my next chapter with anticipation. I plan to stay in this area. I have grandchildren here to keep me busy, even more so because my fiancée and I plan to blend our families together this season at our wedding. We plan to travel. I especially want to visit family and friends in far places, but we will return to participate in this community after our travels.
Thank you for your trust in me over the last three decades. I wish you the best of health going forward.
Sincerely yours,
Jonathan Flescher, MD, FCCP
