One might say Carl Rudd has eased himself into retirement from The Jackson Clinic, PA. After 40 years as the chief executive officer, Rudd started transitioning into retirement five years ago. When Rudd left the office at the end of December, he hoped no one would notice his absence because the transition will have been seamless.
Rudd’s roots run deep in the heart of Texas. He began his college education at Lubbock Christian College, finishing his accounting degree at the University of Texas in Austin in 1971. He passed the Certified Public Accountant exam and took a job as the business office manager for a physician group in Austin.
“In 1973, I met some people from The Jackson Clinic while attending a user meeting for the computer system our clinic in Austin used. The Jackson Clinic used the same system. It just so happened their business office manager, Elton Winslow, was retiring,” said Rudd. “My mentor in Austin, George Lehigh, actually encouraged The Jackson Clinic to hire me as assistant administrator. A year later, I left to be the administrator for a medical group in Memphis, who just happened to be Elvis’s doctors.”
Throughout his time in Memphis, Rudd remained somewhat of a consultant for The Jackson Clinic. “As my suggestions were implemented they eventually asked me to come back,” said Rudd. “I liked Jackson and the group so it was a fairly easy decision. Initially, I was the assistant administrator but in 1976, less than a year after I returned, I was named administrator at the age of 26. Although I was young, I was prepared better than my years and intellect because of the education I had received at the University of Texas. It was a phenomenal experience that really taught me how to think.”
In 1976, the clinic had 25 doctors and Rudd was challenged with making the organization a medical center. “We really wanted to make it on the caliber of major healthcare institutions across the country just in a smaller community. I had always found the idea of having that level of quality medicine in a rural setting to be interesting. It was really what five superior doctors, trained at some of the best schools in the country, including John Hopkins, Duke and Vanderbilt, did when they opened the clinic in 1950,” said Rudd. “We had to convert from being just a doctor’s office, to being a major deliverer of healthcare in the region. Because we knew our doctors were first rate and the community was supportive, we could achieve our goal of delivering the highest level of care to our patients.”
Rudd attributes part of the success of achieving this goal to the city of Jackson. “In the 1970’s, Jackson was probably the most dynamic community in the state,” he said. “It was aggressively recruiting industry and very forward thinking which meant the environment was right. Jackson was ready to grow and boom which made recruiting physicians easier because you could show them this was an unusual community. If a doctor wanted to practice specialized medicine in a small community in the South it was here or Tupelo, Mississippi, which gave us an opportunity to get established.”
For the first 50 years of its existence, the clinic was the largest multi-specialty clinic in the state with offices all over West Tennessee. Due to changes in managed care, the clinic has focused more on its presence in Jackson. “The growth in Jackson has been continuous since many of our patients come here to work and shop as well as for their healthcare needs. Roughly 65 percent of our patients today live outside of Madison County,” said Rudd. “To have the high quality specialized care we offer, you have to have three to four physicians in the same specialty. To keep that many busy, you have to concentrate them in one area so they can practice and maintain quality of life.”
Over his 40+ years, Rudd has seen lots of changes in healthcare. “In the ‘70’s people came to you when they were sick and you treated them. That is not the healthcare delivery system of today,” he said. “Today, it is identifying and treating them before the disease process causes them to be acutely ill. From electronic medical records to managed care coordinators, there are so many things to help keep a patient from getting ill. Patients can now get many diagnostic tests done here without long stays, which is a huge service to patients not only in Madison County but in the 20 surrounding counties we serve.”
One thing that has not changed over the years is Rudd’s faith. “Christianity has always been a huge part of what I do and who I am. I purposely chose to be in the Bible Belt because I wanted to be in an environment that being a Christian would be normal and I wanted my sons to experience that as well,” he said. “Being able to demonstrate Christian characteristics in a medical environment is something I am very proud of. When you recognize the fact that you are impacting 125,000 different people’s lives, 700 of which are employees and their families, for the good, is very satisfying.”
Rudd says that while he has worked hard on working himself out of his job, he will miss the daily conversations as well as the problem-solving aspects. “My mother once asked me what I do and I told her I take a problem no one knows what to do with and figure out a way to solve it. I have sort of gotten addicted to that part of things,” he said. “I have great confidence in Mark Allen who will be leading this organization into the next chapter. The transition has been going on for so long and in such small steps there will be no abrupt radical changes for anyone, including me. I think a good leader’s job is to prepare the organization to function just as well without them as with them. And after 40 years, I think I have done that.”
Retirement for Rudd will be an easy problem to solve because he plans to spend time with his wife of 48 years as well as with his 94-year old mother, four sons and eight grandchildren. Travel is also in the equation for the Elder at Skyline Church of Christ and will include mission trips to Africa.
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