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Third time’s the charm, as the saying goes. For Tom Ellis, MD, his third move to Jackson to practice medicine seems to have provided him with just what he was looking for as he enters the final phase of his career.

Ellis, who grew up in nearby Selmer, Tennessee, and graduated from Selmer High School in 1965, knew at an early age that he was interested in science. Although he had no family members in the medical field, he knew in high school that medical school was where he wanted to end up. When it came time to choose a college, his search took him to the University of the South at Sewanee — a university with an academically excellent reputation and whose graduates were attractive to medical schools.

 “Sewanee’s reputation as an excellent school was one of the big reasons I chose to go there,” said Ellis, who majored in biology. “It was an all boy school at the time I attended.”  

For Ellis, academics never came easy. “I had to work hard to get good grades,” he said. “I think I had a good work ethic as far as school was concerned; I couldn’t get by without studying.”

Ellis applied to medical school at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in Memphis. He remained in Memphis to complete his residency in internal medicine and in 1976, he moved to Jackson and joined two other physicians at the Medical Clinic. After three years in private practice, Ellis decided he wanted to specialize further.

“I enjoyed the critical care side of practicing so much that I decided to pursue a more defined specialty and chose pulmonary medicine,” Ellis said. “I returned to UT-Memphis and completed a two-year fellowship in pulmonary medicine.”

In early 1981, Ellis moved to Jackson for the second time to join two other physicians who were opening the first group of medical subspecialties in the city, Medical Specialty Clinic where he practiced until 2003.

“It may seem that I was sort of a rolling stone, but I am really basically not like that,” said Ellis, who left Medical Specialty Clinic and joined a group at Baptist Hospital in Memphis.  “I was just in a circumstance where I was burned out and needed a change.” “I was also looking at possibilities down on the Gulf Coast and found a job in Destin, Florida, in 2004 at a small hospital. I was a part-time hospitalist and a part-time pulmonologist.”

Life in Destin was good for Ellis, but after four years, he and his wife, Donna, started to feel a bit estranged from their three children who lived in Jackson, Nashville and Knoxville. Becoming grandparents, with one in Jackson and one in Knoxville, also pulled on their heartstrings. When the Ellises found themselves burning up the road between Florida and Tennessee more than they were enjoying the Gulf Coast, they knew it was time to come back to Tennessee.

Three years ago, Ellis made his third move to Jackson to join the Pulmonary and Critical Care Department at the Jackson Clinic. “I am very happy, and it is a great fit for me,” Ellis said. “My partners in the pulmonary department are great to work with, and I am so proud to be a member of this group. As I see my career winding down, this is a good situation for me to end up in. I have always felt this was home and we have lots of friends here, so it was easy to come back. I love working at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital. It was easy to walk back in and go to work since I knew the people. When you work somewhere for 30 years, the people there are like your family.”

In addition to pulmonary medicine, which includes treating lung-related issues such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, smoking-related lung disease and even lung tumors, Ellis also practices in the field of sleep medicine. “I have done it for years,” he said. “It is mainly an area pulmonary folks get involved in due to sleep apnea. I incorporated it into my practice and use the sleep clinic at the hospital. It is not a big part of my practice, but I enjoy it.”

“The biggest sleep disorder I see is sleep apnea, a common disorder in which there are one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while sleeping,” said Ellis, who is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary disease and sleep medicine. “The most common and effective treatment is for the patient to wear a pressurized mask and also control his or her weight.”

“The prevalence of sleep disorders has become more common over a number of years because so many patients with the condition are overweight. I have seen the incidence of it increase since I started treating sleep disorders 20 years ago.”

Although Ellis is approaching 65, he plans to work several more years. “I always thought I would retire at 65, but if my health holds I see myself working several more years. I may down scale down my practice to more office and sleep work, de-emphasizing my critical care role,” said Ellis. “The development of hospitalists lessens our night call. With the hospitalist as the primary admitting physician, it allows you to concentrate more on patient issues. And at this pace, I can see myself working several more years.”

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