4. Excellent Physicians

Meera and Alan Scarrow looked all over the country to find a place to practice medicine and contribute to others in a way that they feel makes a difference. The Scarrows – both of whom have law degrees in addition to their medical degrees – are today’s doctors: passionate about helping others, yet aware of the challenges of providing medical care in an ever-changing health care environment.

The Scarrows joined St. John’s Clinic in 2003. Impressed by the physicians and state-of-the-art facilities, they say they’ve made a good decision.

“We wanted to practice alongside other physicians of high caliber. We talked to health systems in 80 towns before deciding on St. John’s,” Meera Scarrow says.

St. John’s Clinic has nearly 500 physicians in 67 locations throughout southwest Missouri and northern Arkansas. These physicians, along with their staff, serve about 1.4 million patient visits each year, says Donn Sorensen, St. John’s Clinic senior vice president and chief operating officer.

“These 1.4 million patients that come to us each year demand, and deserve, high-quality compassionate care delivered in a high-service environment. That’s what we’re doing each and every day,” Sorensen says.

Over the past few years, national organizations have taken notice of St. John’s Clinic for its high patient satisfaction scores and low turnover rate. St. John’s Clinic is now ranked among the top 10 medical practices nationwide for patient satisfaction and service by Press Ganey Associates Inc.

“The best place for a physician to practice medicine is within a large multi-specialty group within a large integrated health care system. That provides the physician with the best access to resources, capital, equipment, technology and the ability to work with the hospital and the health plans to effectively improve quality of care and patient satisfaction,” Sorensen says. “We are committed to keeping the sense of entrepreneurism and innovation alive while practicing the best business acumen that we can. The physicians focus on delivering the most leading-edge, compassionate health care possible, while St. John’s Clinic leadership focuses on performance and operations on the business side.”

Aggressive, continuous, nationwide physician recruitment and strong physician leadership have kept St. John’s Clinic staffed with the highest-quality physicians in the country. Sorensen says 91 percent of St. John’s Clinic physicians are board-certified in their specialty.

“We’ve set a standard for the quality of physicians that we hire and maintain here,” says Walt Gaska, M.D., St. John’s Clinic president and a practicing plastic surgeon.

Ophthalmologist Shachar Tauber, M.D., came to St. John’s from Yale Medical Group last year.

“When I met Dr. Gaska and the other doctors who work at St. John’s, I was tremendously impressed by the wealth of knowledge and experience they had here, as well as their interests and high degree of specialization,” Tauber says.

Electrophysiologist (a sub-specialist within cardiology) Shang-Chum Lee, M.D., recently came to St. John’s Clinic from Mayo Clinic, where he was extensively trained in a breakthrough new procedure for atrial fibrillation. Lee and fellow electrophysiologist Stanley Wiggins, M.D., at St. John’s Clinic – Cardiology have offered the new procedure since the spring. At press time, this procedure – catheter-based pulmonary vein isolation – was available only at St. John’s.

“We are always researching all the new technologies in medicine so we can provide them to our physicians so that they, in turn, can do what they have been trained to do – provide the most cutting-edge, current care to their patients,” Gaska says.