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Dr. Tom Wachtel could be called a country doctor of sorts.

NBC 10's Barbara Morse Silva reported that Wachtel spends a lot of his time in the country with some of his most challenging patients -- golden-agers.

Wachtel spends a few days each week at the Nancy Ann Nursing Home in Foster, where some of his patients live.

Wachtel is a geriatrician. He specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of seniors.

"I've always liked challenges, and I think the older a person gets the more difficult they are to manage, diagnostically and therapeutically," Wachtel said. "There's so much going on."

His patients' medical needs are important. But so is getting to know them and their families.

Wachtel's office is a few minutes away from the nursing home. Almost every bit of his wall space is covered in pictures, many of which he restored.

As he puts it, he makes old things new, even an old examination table from the 1920s. Does it bring back memories for some of his patients?

"Occasionally, I do hear that," Wachtel said.

He has stickers and buttons everywhere. "Age. It's not a disease," one of them reads.

So, just who is Tom Wachtel?

"I was born in New York, and my parents moved to France when I was three months old," Wachtel said.

He remained in France until he was 25 and did his internship and residency in Rochester and then Providence. But it was Providence where he chose to settle down more than 30 years ago.

"It's a little more European-like, the city. It's more cosmopolitan," Wachtel said. 

Wachtel also drives 45 minutes to The Miriam Hospital in Providence, where he also sees patients.

As for being named a Top Doc for women.

"It's sort of ironic because, as you know, women outlive men. So, if you are a geriatrician, you're going to have a lot more women patients than men patients," Wachtel said.

But he does take the kudos seriously.

"It's an honor absolutely, and I take some pride in it," Wachtel said.

Wachtel is one of three local geriatricians named a Top Doc for women in the current issue of Rhode Island Monthly.