Absolutely.  It's probably true of a lot of medical dramas, the nature of the case or the patient reflects the personal life.

I was dissecting the episode format to teach myself how to write an hourlong (and I have an idea that's sort of in the Nip/Tuck vein) and I could really see the interplay at work.  There's three threads in each episode to me: the WORK (surgery), the PERSONAL, and THE FLING.  And there's sort of an inversion of the detective/lawyer story: the surgery is usually at the start of the episode, while the trial in a law show happens near the end.