While he may practice in one of the state’s busiest emergency rooms, Phil Norsworthy, MD, has not forgotten his small town roots or the lessons he learned while practicing there. Hailing from the tiny community of Pendorff near Laurel in South Mississippi, Norsworthy, at over six feet, may tower over his patients but his soft spoken manner and caring nature has been putting patients in the Emergency Department at Jackson Madison County General Hospital at ease for the past 20 years.
The youngest of five, Norsworthy says he grew up in a very traditional family. His father was an electrician and his mom was a homemaker. “My dad was 42 when I was born and my closest sibling was ten years older than me,” he said. “And to give you an idea of how small my town was, the elementary school I went to had maybe 100 students in the entire school.”
Norsworthy dreamed of being either a sports broadcaster or an attorney but realized in high school that he had an aptitude for science and liked the idea of helping people. By the time he graduated from West Jones High School in 1974, he knew medicine was the path he would pursue. After two years at a junior college, Norsworthy transferred to Ole Miss, graduating in 1978 with a degree in zoology. He completed his medical school training in 1982 at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in Jackson.
As far as his preparation for a career in the medical field, Norsworthy is the first to admit that he sort of went into it blind. “At the time, there were no other medical people in my family, although my two sisters eventually became nurses,” he said. “We had no friends who were physicians. I never shadowed one or worked in a clinic or hospital. I sacked groceries at the A&P in high school and worked at Sears part-time while in college.”
For his residency, Norsworthy remained in Jackson at the Medical Center and chose to pursue family medicine. “I sort of liked to do lots of different things and family medicine provided me with that opportunity,” said Norsworthy. “During my three year residency, I had the opportunity to see patients of all age groups and had a lot of options of what I could do when I came out. It really prepared me for working in an ER.”
After his residency, Norsworthy moved to Indianola, Mississippi to join the Hull Brothers Clinic. “I went with one of my medical school friends who I had known at Ole Miss. We went into practice with three other physicians. The last of the Hull Brothers retired when we came in. Being in a small town, the clinic saw a lot of obstetric patients, delivering more than 550 babies each year. We each took care of our own patients and delivered their babies whether we were on call or not. While I was at the clinic, I delivered more than 1000 babies,” said Norsworthy. “It was important to each of us to be there for our patients, I felt that people trusted me and that I was going to be the one to take care of them.”
In 1991, Norsworthy left the clinic to work in the emergency department at Baptist Hospital in Memphis for a few months then moved to Jackson to work in the ER at Jackson Madison County General Hospital. “In 1992, I married my wife Mandy, who was from the Mississippi Delta,” said Norsworthy. “While we really liked Jackson, we were a little homesick.”
Sixteen months later, Norsworthy returned to Indianola and to the Hull clinic. “Right after we moved back, Mandy’s father came in to see me. He was having chest distress and we found a large mass in his lung. He was a tough old ex-marine and made it another year. The day before he died, he was riding his lawn mower,” said Norsworthy. “We were so thankful that we could be with him and felt like God placed us back there to help him. While it was where we needed to be at the time, I did realize that I liked working in an ER more than in a clinic. After Mandy’s dad died, we decided to come back to Jackson and I got my old job back.”
Over his 20 years in the emergency department at Jackson General, Norsworthy says a lot has changed. “When I came here, we had seven doctors covering three 12-hour shifts a day,” he said. “Now we have 14 doctors, six fellows that cover ten physician shifts a day and 11 nurse practitioners or physicians assistants that cover seven mid-level shifts a day for a total of 17 providers a day. We have gone from seeing about 35,000 patients a year to over 80,000 each year and are the busiest ER in the state.
Away from work, Norsworthy can be found on the golf course or cheering for the Ole Miss Rebels any chance he can get. His pride and joys share in his love of Ole Miss. His daughter Lauren graduated with a degree in nursing from Ole Miss and will complete her nurse practitioner degree in December. Son Baker is a junior at Ole Miss pursuing an engineering degree.
One thing Norsworthy enjoys the most about practicing medicine is his time with the patients. “I love to sit down, talk to them and help figure out what is going on with them, especially if it is complicated and they have not been able to find the answer,” he said. “I love what I do and part of that is in part to the great partners I have the privilege to work with, some of which I have worked with for 20 years. Work can be busy and a little crazy at times but we work for a hospital that lets us take good care of people regardless of their means. The hospital has grown and survived through some tough times but the one thing that has never changed is that they provide a good place for us to do what we need to take care of our patients.”
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