Dr. Bill Stechschulte
Upholding The Medical Traditions Started By His Father And Grandfather Story by Deborah Welky • Photos by Abner Pedraza
Dr. William M. Stechschulte calls himself a product of his environment. The son of a doctor and a nurse, “Dr. Bill” grew up in Wellington, where he attended Wellington Elementary School, Wellington Landings Middle School and Wellington High School. As a child, he tagged along on hospital rounds with his father, Dr. William J. Stechschulte. “I remember doing that from the time I could walk,” Dr. Bill recalled. “I’d make the weekend rounds with him, and he’d introduce me to everybody, including the doctors and the nurses. I remember the nurses looking after me if he got busy. By the time I got to high school, he was letting me write his orders in the chart. I would very carefully write everything out for him. Now there are nurses and doctors in the hospital who remember me as a young boy.” He later attended Nova Southeastern University Medical School and did his rotations at the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center, Columbia Hospital and Palms West Hospital. He did his
residency at Wellington Regional Medical Center. “I actually did three months at Palms West as a medical student, in pediatrics and ICU,” Dr. Bill said. “When I was a resident-in-training at Wellington Regional Medical Center, my dad was a teaching physician there. He was the attending physician on the medical teaching staff, and I was underneath him. Now, I’m doing the same thing… I take part in the education meetings and by training the students as well. Dad always had residents and medical students working with him in his office, and now I’m doing the same.” While his sister is a dermatologist, Dr. Bill is a primary-care physician, like his father and grandfather before him. He is affiliated with both Palms
West Hospital and Wellington Regional Medical Center. “I treat all types of disorders — cardiological, gastronomical, neurological, dermatological… It’s challenging, because you have to know everything, but it’s a challenge I accept,” he said. “I don’t see children, because I haven’t been trained in that. I see ages 18 and up in internal medicine. I chose internal medicine because I get to see such a wide range of conditions. It makes it interesting. You never know what you’re going to get when you walk into an exam room.” Dr. Bill also focuses on preventative care, finding things early and trying to prevent disease. “I’m at the forefront of educating the patient,” he said. “They come to me with a lot of questions, and wellington the magazine | july 2015
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