PORT ANGELES — Two Olympic Medical Center doctors who came out of retirement to rescue all-hours orthopedic surgery on the North Olympic Peninsula have earned statewide honors.
Drs. Jim Mowry and Bob Watkins — the once-retired surgeons who established OMC’s orthopedic hospitalist program in 2005 — were given the Washington Rural Health Care Association’s Outstanding Rural Health Practitioner Award at the annual Northwest Regional Rural Health Conference in Spokane on Wednesday.
They were among four recipients on the Peninsula.
Also recognized were Forks Community Hospital Administrator Camille Scott and longtime Jefferson Healthcare Chief Executive Officer Vic Dirksen.
State Secretary of Health Mary Selecky handed out the awards after Dr. Tom Locke, public health officer for Clallam and Jefferson counties, delivered the keynote address at the conference.
“I was very flattered and honored,” said Mowry, 67, a former Kirkland surgeon who came out of retirement in 2005.
He had been traveling the country with his wife, Dorothy, in an RV.
“I was in complete shock.”
Watkins, who worked in private practice between 1976 and 2001, trained himself in information technology — or IT — after uncompensated care skyrocketed.
“I was seeing a very large number of people who couldn’t pay,” Watkins said.
“Before you knew it, I was going bankrupt.”
Watkins, 68, took an unpaid internship as an IT specialist at OMC.
It became a full-time job when he managed the wireless systems at the Sequim campus and installed software in the hospital’s emergency room.
“It was actually in the process of doing that in the ER [emergency room] when two of the orthopedic surgeons that were previously covering the ER decided not to cover the ER,” Watkins recalled.
“It went from four [surgeons] to two.
“I was in IT, and I would see these cases that were standard orthopedic surgical cases — hip fractures and wrist fractures and so on — that would get sent to Harborview [Medical Center in Seattle] because there wasn’t coverage.”
Watkins described the Seattle hospital as a “war zone” where patients endure long waits for standard surgical care.
“There are times when Harborview is so swapped they can’t take a case,” Watkins said.
“I can’t tell you how bad it makes Bob and me feel when there is something like that,” Mowry added.
“It just drove me nuts.”
Rather than standing idly by, Watkins grabbed his scrubs and scalpel and jumped back into surgery.
“I’m a sled dog,” he said, “and I’m happiest doing orthopedics.
“Here was an opportunity to get back doing orthopedics.”
Mowry joined OMC’s orthopedic team after Watkins’ workload had become a burden.
“Both Dr. Mowry and Dr. Watkins graciously came out of retirement to rejoin Olympic Medical Center’s medical staff and establish the orthopaedic hospitalist program,” said Dr. Scott Kennedy, OMC’s chief medical officer, in a prepared statement.
“To do so, they had to complete extensive continuing education and proctoring by fellow orthopaedic surgeons on staff. As a result, they defined a successful pathway that allows qualified retired surgeons to come back to active practice in this community.
“They have provided outstanding service so there is never a day that orthopaedic call coverage for the emergency department is not covered.”
From 2006 to 2009, Mowry and Watkins performed a combined 11,538 surgeries and follow-up office visits. Watkins logged 6,179 procedures and Mowry handled 5,359.
“This hospital has just gone out of its way to stand behind us, and it’s made our lives so pleasant because it has hired us,” Mowry said.
“We are employees.
“We don’t worry about all the things that he and I worried about for 25 or 35 years.
“They made this whole thing work.”
Jim Leskinovitch, one of the seven OMC commissioners, said it took a “total commitment” on the part of Mowry and Watkins to build OMC’s orthopedic hospitalist program.
“We are just so fortunate to have two men of that caliber within our community,” Leskinovitch said.
“Both represent the highest ideals in medicine.”
Eric Lewis, OMC’s chief executive officer, said:
“These two physicians set the example for the patient-centered care people have come to expect from OMC.
“We are honored and proud to have Dr. Mowry and Dr. Watkins on our medical staff, and we are thrilled the WRHA has recognized their dedication.”
In her letter of recommendation to the rural health association, orthopedic surgeon Margaret Baker described her colleagues as “surgical sages.”
“Once on active staff, both Drs. Mowry and Watkins have helped many hundreds of our local patients back to good health and no doubt saved some lives and limbs in the process,” Baker wrote.
Leskinovitch accepted a plaque on behalf of Mowry, who could not make the trip to Spokane because of health problems.
As for the future, both surgeons said they would stay on until OMC finds their replacements.
“Bob and I have talked for years about going out of the door when the new guys came in the other door,” Mowry said.
“We said to each other, we’re not here to do anything except help this hospital through this crisis period.”
Recruiting can be a challenge for rural hospitals because so many new orthopedic surgeons are specializing in a subfield.
“I am optimistic that we will get some people here,” Watkins said.
Meanwhile, Mowry and Watkins will continue doing what they love.
“I can think of nothing that I enjoy more than doing this,” Mowry said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
