Guest column: A day to honor our doctors

It amazes me how much healthcare has changed in the last four years since the pandemic. However, there is one constant: physicians still shoulder the ultimate responsibility for a patient’s care whether it be in an outpatient practice, in the Emergency Room, on the Med Surg floors, in Labor and Delivery, or on the operating table. From the days of Hippocrates, doctors held the fate of their fellow human beings in their hands — and certainly in their hearts.

It is why we pause on Doctors’ Day each year to thank those men and women who made the decision to travel down that long road to becoming a physician. At both Phoenixville Hospital and Pottstown Hospital we are grateful for the over 500 physicians who work in our hospitals, offices, and clinics. We celebrate and honor their commitment to their field, their patients, and our community.

It is easy to marvel at the life-saving tools medicine employs. And just as easy to become frustrated with medicine when chronic disease, terminal illness and horrific accidents win the battle over the doctor’s most drastic life-saving measures.

It is too easy to forget that the physician – the healer, the comforter, the saver of lives — is a human.

The same doctor who was successful in working through a difficult differential diagnosis in a challenging case then has to turn around and deliver the grim prognosis to the patient and his family.

The longtime family doctor who has watched a patient evolve from a vibrant and active lifestyle to an aging, weakened state, despite all their best efforts to hold off father time.

On March 30 we take time to thank our doctors — primary care and specialists — for their unwavering care for the lives we at Phoenixville Hospital and Pottstown Hospital touch each year.

We acknowledge their lives outside the hospital though we realize their chosen career path often makes it difficult to separate the two worlds. We appreciate the physician who ventures out in the middle of the night to bring a new life into this world. We thank the emergency room physicians and hospitalists for the personal sacrifices they make by staffing our facilities on weekends and holidays. We are grateful to those doctors who answer emergency calls from our hospital staff and patients while out for dinner with their spouses or during a family gathering.

The physicians who serve our hospitals, physician offices, and clinics all have their own stories to tell, tales of heroic measures inside our walls and in their community. They are all part of our two hospitals’ families of physicians who collaborate with us and the other members of our healthcare team of professionals. They ensure the outstanding medical care for all our patients.

We are fortunate to have these men and women. Today we acknowledge their contributions, sacrifices, skills, and unwavering concern for our community. As I transition out of Tower Health and our two hospitals, I would like to let the Medical Staff know what a privilege it has been collaborating with you on the common goal of making a difference in the lives of the patients. Our communities are lucky to have you!

Rich Newell is President & CEO of Pottstown Hospital and Phoenixville Hospital.