(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - Long time Ketchikan pediatrician, David Johnson M.D. has retired. Friday (December 30, 2016) was his last day at PeaceHealth Ketchikan. On the bright side, he and his wife Jennifer Johnson RN will stay in Ketchikan.

Dr. Johnson came to Ketchikan 46 years ago as an officer in the US Public Health Service fresh out of internship and assigned to the Indian Health Clinic located in then Ketchikan General Hospital. He picks up the story:

David and Jenny Johnson
Photo courtesy PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center

“Our clinic was where most of radiology is located now. After two years I left for pediatrics residency at the University of Washington and Children’s Hospital in Seattle. I returned to Ketchikan in July 1974, and worked for 31 years at the Ketchikan Medical Clinic, a private clinic that was located across from the US Post Office. Since 2005 I have worked ‘part time’ first at Callisto Clinic and continuing when that clinic became part of PHMG Pediatrics," said Dr. Johnson.

Johnson said, “There have been many changes in those years. When I arrived in 1970 we had one ECG machine in the hospital, no pulse oximetry, no ultrasound, or computers. When I returned in 1974, I was one of ten private physicians who took ‘city call’ in a rotation to cover the emergency room for patients who presented without a physician, since we had no emergency room physicians. “ In those days the Emergency Room was two rooms near the soon-to-be-discontinued operating rooms at Ketchikan Medical Center."

“Through it all,” Dr. Johnson continues, “the single most important aspect of medical practice that kept me here was the competence and dedication of my colleagues on the medical staff, the nursing staff, the support staff and the local administration. It has truly been a privilege to work with such a moving tapestry of outstanding individuals.”

Jenny Johnson RN will continue in outpatient surgery, Dr. Johnson says, “we are building a smaller house south of town on the water—our version of “moving south in retirement. I plan to continue on the community board and the foundation board, with other activities to be determined.”

Editing by Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News:

PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center
www.peacehealth.org/ketchikan

 

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