Taking on the place of medical director/well being authority for the Abilene Taylor County Public Well being District, longtime Abilene doctor Dr. Gary Goodnight stated he’s entering into a job he has lengthy appreciated.
Goodnight, whose appointment was authorized in October by the Abilene Metropolis Council and Taylor County commissioners stated he’d admired the town/county place and the those that beforehand held it.
The group of well-known Abilene medical doctors contains Dr. Zane Travis, who served within the position for 11 years after he retired from inside medication in 1999, and Dr. Peter Norton, a retired obstetrician/genecologist.
“I simply revered these guys stepping as much as serve the neighborhood,” stated Goodnight, who makes a speciality of otolaryngology (head and neck surgical procedure) and otolaryngologic allergy.
The district’s earlier medical director, Dr. Annie Drachenberg, left after her contract resulted in October to focus on her household follow, he stated.
Coincidentally, Goodnight just lately discovered himself “on the different finish” of his medical profession, he stated, making the work a great match.
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Championing well being
His new position, Goodnight stated, represents a possibility to serve an entire neighborhood with its well being care, not only one affected person at a time.
And ideally, the place can function “a champion” for public well being in a wide range of methods, he stated, together with for indigent residents, vaccination, or applications such because the well being district’s Ladies Infants and Kids (WIC) program.
All are examples of initiatives that may assist “a few of the much less lucky, or (these) which might be simply getting their toes on the bottom,” he stated, together with “new refugees within the space.”
The place additionally serves an important academic position, one thing he’s embraced.
Goodnight’s even prepared to return to high school himself to serve finest and is wanting into buying a certificates in public well being from Texas Tech College Well being Sciences Middle, he stated.
“I’m excited by beginning to work on that,” he stated, including that the varsity’s presence right here was a boon to the neighborhood.
“We’re working with them proper now on doing a neighborhood well being evaluation,” Goodnight stated.
The district has quite a few applications beneath its care, from immunizations to girls’s well being applications at its MERCY Well being Care Middle, public well being emergency preparedness, environmental well being, rabies management and prevention, lab providers and extra.
Adopting the mission
Annette Lerma, director of the well being district, stated Goodnight’s need to study “extra about what we do and why we do it” is an effective indicator of his drive.
The place he fills is a requirement of the state’s Well being and Security Code, Chapter 121, Lerma stated.
However “he rapidly adopted our mission as his personal,” Lerma stated.
The district’s mission, as acknowledged on its web site, is to “present preventative providers to advertise neighborhood well being,” offering providers to residents of the town, the county and 18 different surrounding counties.
“I believe he shall be an amazing advocate,” Lerma stated. “He is very nicely related in the neighborhood, very nicely revered. And I believe that may serve us nicely.”
Because the district’s medical director/well being authority, Goodnight will oversee nurse practitioners and doctor assistants, help within the reporting of infectious ailments to state authorities, help in illness prevention, quarantine inspections and sanitation points and assist perform public health-required guidelines and ordinances, the town stated in a press release about his appointment.
Included are “quarantine orders that provides us the authorized authority to quarantine beneath sure infectious disease-type conditions, as we noticed with COVID-19,” Lerma stated.
“Even issues like (tuberculosis), in case you have a affected person who just isn’t compliant, they will write authorized orders which might be enforced via the district legal professional,” she stated.
However the district’s best hope for Goodnight, Lerma stated, is the credibility and authority a doctor along with his tenure lends to the “messages that we’re making an attempt to get out” to the general public.
Getting concerned
Just a few weeks into the position, Goodnight has already met with key stakeholders on points necessary to public well being, Lerma stated.
She’s personally been impressed along with his willingness to ask questions and take an curiosity in “each program we now have,” she stated.
Goodnight stated he was already equally impressed management on show within the metropolis’s vaccination program, together with its efforts towards COVID-19.
And after talking with Lois Woods, director of the district’s WIC program, he walked away with vastly inspired, he stated.
“Kids that undergo this program simply find yourself being more healthy,” he stated. “Total, there’s much less childhood weight problems with those who take part as a result of their mother and father, their moms are studying dietary info. And so, that places them off to a great begin.”
Wanting forward
There’s all the time room for enchancment, and Goodnight stated he’d wish to see an try to revive dental programming to the town’s public well being choices.
The district closed the program after the Abilene Metropolis Council in December 2020 voted to chop it and different city-funded applications and positions, citing quite a few financial issues.
Metropolis officers stated this system price $268,240 yearly and initially was deliberate to be self-sufficient.
But it surely required $407,804 generally fund subsidies since Fiscal 12 months 2018 to stay in operation, prompting its closure.
However “from a doctor who’s taken emergency room calls his complete profession, one of many greatest issues I’ve seen are dental abscesses,” Goodnight stated.
Left unchecked, an abscess can result in an an infection can unfold all through an individual’s physique, inflicting severe and doubtlessly life-threatening results.
The important thing, he stated, can be discovering a correct mix of oversight and volunteers to work on a rotating foundation to fill pressing wants, significantly tooth extractions.
“If we might maintain sufferers from needing that emergency room service … that will be very useful to the neighborhood,” he stated.
Brian Bethel covers metropolis and county authorities and basic information for the Abilene Reporter-Information. In case you admire domestically pushed information, you possibly can help native journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.
About Dr. Gary Goodnight
A graduate of the Faculty of Pharmacy, Southwestern Oklahoma State College, in Weatherford, Oklahoma, Goodnight practiced pharmacy for 5 years in Shawnee, Oklahoma, then he attended medical college at Oklahoma State College’s School of Osteopathic Medication in Tulsa.
He was accepted for post-graduate residency coaching in otolaryngology and facial cosmetic surgery in Detroit, Michigan, the place he was chief surgical resident.
Board licensed, he specializes primarily in otolaryngology (head and neck surgical procedure) and otolaryngologic allergy.
He practiced for six years within the Palm Seaside, Florida, space earlier than shifting to Abilene. He and Dr. Jeffrey Braaten, who he knew in medical college, fashioned ENT Specialists of Abilene.
Amongst different roles, Goodnight has served as Chief of Employees for Hendrick Well being.
He was just lately appointed medical director/well being authority of the Abilene-Taylor County Public Well being District.
Married to Jean Goodnight, the couhey have two grown daughters.
In regards to the Abilene-Taylor County Public Well being District
The Well being District’s objectives are to “shield and promote the well being of all in Abilene and Taylor County via analysis, advocacy, and providers that stop illness and improve the well-being of the neighborhood and the surroundings during which they dwell,” in keeping with its web site.
It serves Abilene, Taylor County, and an 18-county space surrounding it.
Companies and areas of curiosity embody:
►Immunizations.
►Ladies’s well being applications at its MERCY Well being Care Middle.
►The Ladies, Infants and Kids program.
►Epidemiology.
►Tuberculosis schooling, monitoring, testing and remedy.
►Public well being emergency preparedness.
►The Texas Wholesome Communities program, which promotes well being via bodily exercise, well being meals entry, wholesome worksites, environmental well being, healthcare high quality and entry, wholesome getting old, psychological well being and emergency preparedness.
►Environmental well being.
►Lab providers.
►Rabies management and prevention.
► The Texas Bodily Exercise & Diet (TXPAN) Program.
► A refugee program, providing providers to guard and enhance the well being of newly-arrived refugees.
►Very important statistics.
For info, name 325-692-5600.
