Medical Staff President Farewell

by Dr. Judith Bodnar

I leave office and say goodbye feeling excited but a little sad.  My time as president of the medical staff comes to an end as I depart practice altogether.  Is this move for good or just for a while?  I do not know.  I do know that I will miss everyone, and I have many people to thank for many wonderful years in practice and the accomplishments during my tenure.  I believe we have the highest quality medical staff any patient could ever want, excellent nurses who truly care and our hospital is an outstanding facility.  When I needed surgery, I couldn't imagine going anywhere else.

I started my career and did my internship in 1978 at St. Luke's Hospital.  One of my fellow interns was Pat Sutton, now an ED doc on the South Campus.  Russ Simpson was a third year resident along with others now in the community whom I talk with regularly.   In 1979, I took five years off to live a little.  I returned to do my residency in 1984 at PSL. St. Luke's and Presbyterian had merged.  Nelson Prager and I were in training together.  My Infectious Disease rotation was with Don Kearns where I managed to read medical articles every afternoon (as required).  He and Dixie Baines were great teachers as were nearly everyone I encountered.  My attendings included Nick DiBella, Jerry Greenberg, Gene Sherman and Susan Sherman to name a few.  Many more deserve mention.

The year that Sallie Clark and Joan Eldridge began practice, Jon Stuebner was president of the north medical staff.  I joined Barlow, Stuebner and Munch's medical group in 1987.  Jon taught me the ropes of office practice and told me that everyone took a turn being president.  He assured me that I would too.  Dick Fieman came to my office and helped me with my first flexible sigmoidoscopies.  He and Richard Rein had been my GI attendings.  I stayed in community practice through changes in medicine that included the merger of the North and South Campus.  Then in 2001, I took two years off. 

I came back in practice to work for Joe Forrester in CCPC.  The most striking thing I remember was the enumerable new drugs and how slowly I plodded along.  Joe worked with me as a mentor until I got comfortable.  He was a godsend.  He is truly a first-rate physician.  In fact, the physicians and nurses that I work with day in and day out provide superb care.  They aim for their personal best.  That includes the doctors in my group, the PCPs we work with, the many specialists and the nurses who render the toughest part of care at the bedside.  I wish I could name everyone. 

During my tenure as a medical staff leader, John Hill and his executive team, Lynn Stockton and her staff, Alan Aboaf and Denny Waite provided unending support.  Physician leaders on the Medical Executive Committee (MEC) consistently made thoughtful decisions.  They impressed me each time with their discussions and concern.  Whenever I asked for their help, they gave it willingly.  CCPC, my group, tolerated my special needs in terms of meetings and scheduling.  I cannot thank everyone enough. I want to especially thank Sallie Clark for agreeing to take over the role of past president in my absence.

I wanted to improve communication between the hospital and the physicians during my presidency.  I believe we moved towards that goal.  We shifted from fax to email and now have several methodologies in place for improved hospital to physician communication.  John's brainchild, the physician HOTLINE (303-338-PHYS), enables physician to hospital communication for anyone willing to call.  Our new alliance in service lines, centered around patient care, should enable collaborative care in the upcoming medical arena.  I leave knowing Ali Sarram will do a great job as president of the medical staff.  He has shown impressive qualities over the last two years.  I wish him the best of luck in his new role.  Most of all, I want to give a big thank you to everyone.