Even in retirement, Jeffrey Woodside, MD, is making a difference in the lives of patients across Hardin County. With more than 25 years of experience in healthcare, academia and as an executive, Woodside brings a unique perspective and a wealth of knowledge to the Board of Commissioners of rural West Tennessee’s Hardin County Medical Center. While he does have MD at the end of his name, Woodside’s career has been more of a blend of academia and executive leadership roles than the traditional practice of medicine.
With a father who was a rising exec with Standard Oil, Woodside’s childhood saw him living all over the West, attending five high schools. When his family lived in Barstow, California, which had an Air Force Base nearby, Woodside dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot but it was several family friends who piqued his interest in medicine. A pre-med major at Oregon State University, he earned his medical degree from the University of Oregon and joined the military where he received aviation experience and was a flight surgeon. After a two-week experience in urology at a military hospital, Woodside was hooked by the mix of men and women patients, coupled with surgery. He took a faculty position immediately following the completion of his urological residency training with the University of New Mexico.
“I found that as you get further along in your residency training, you get to train some of the ones coming in behind you,” said Woodside. “I really enjoyed that, and being in the operating room. I also got my feet wet writing a couple of papers and decided that I liked it, but wasn’t sure it was going to be my career. While in New Mexico, I was exposed to hospital committees through the utilization management committee. The exposure piqued my interest in the business and management side of medicine so I decided to pursue an MBA in Albuquerque.”
Woodside moved more fully into administration with a serendipitous move to Houston in 1987 to join the management staff of the 700-bed Hermann Hospital at University of Texas-Houston College of Medicine. In 1992, this Westerner did something he thought he never would do; move east of the Mississippi to join the staff of the UT-Memphis Health Science Center where he would ultimately become fulltime executive director/CEO of UT Bowld Hospital.
“At that point, it was the most enjoyable job I ever had,” said Woodside. “It was a fairly small facility, with 110 beds but usually only 60-70 in use. It was a boutique specialty surgery hospital; no OB, no neurology but lots of endocrinology, ophthalmology and transplants. There was very much a family feeling to it. While it was a great experience for me professionally, the move to Memphis was also a good one for me personally because I fell in love with not only West Tennessee but the woman who would become my wife.”
In 1999, the hospital made the decision to close due to the tremendous infrastructure improvements needed to survive. Woodside also made the decision to hang up his cystoscope permanently and take the reins as the full-time CMO and vice president for UT Medical Group, the faculty group practice of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. “While I really missed training residents the most, all in all it was great move for me at that stage of life,” he said. “In 2008, I made the decision to retire completely and my wife Donna and I moved to Pickwick Lake in Hardin County.”
Woodside was no stranger to the medical community in Hardin County since he had worked with former Hardin County Medical Center CEO, Charlotte Burns on a project. “I was responsible for the telemedicine program at UT-Memphis in 2003,” said Woodside, “and worked with Charlotte to bring that program to Hardin Medical Center. When a board position opened up at the hospital several years ago, she asked me to serve.”
While the medical center may seem to be a polar opposite to what Woodside’s work in Memphis, he says that in many ways the facilities are quite similar. “There is very much a feeling of family around here among the medical staff and employees, which is something I find attractive. I have served on a fair number of boards in my time and Hardin Medical Center has one of the best,” he said. “The people are very community minded and dedicated to providing quality care right here at home; of which they do a good job.”
In terms of challenges, Woodside does not see a great deal of differences either. “All facilities have to deal with quality and safety, regardless of size,” he said. “And while we may not provide all the services a larger area allows for, what we do offer is performed as well as any other place. The biggest threat we face are those facing other rural hospitals, mainly in terms of declining reimbursement which can be especially tough given that we don’t have the population base and insurance mix a metro area does.”
In retirement, Woodside can be found chasing bass on the lake. Once his impending knee replacement surgery is behind him, he will balance life on the water with life on the links. He and Donna also enjoy traveling to see their grandchildren in Kansas and Houston, Texas.
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