Gaither to leave WATCH
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on April 27, 2016 1:46 PM
News-Argus/ALAN CAMPBELL
Dr. Clark Gaither of Goldsboro Family Physicians and medical director for WATCH will see his last patient at the practice on Friday. But this is not retirement, as he has already written two books and plans to lead corporate workshops and work with the N.C. Physicians Health Program to help physicians struggling with drugs and alcohol.
Dr. Clark Gaither, medical director with the WATCH program, who has practiced at Goldsboro Family Physicians for a quarter century, will see his last patients on Friday.
But he is not retiring.
"I'm transitioning," he said. "I have been in clinical medicine for 27 years, 24 of those in Goldsboro."
He has a place in the mountains, he said, outside of Canton, in the community of Dutch Cove. He said he will likely move there later in the spring.
"I will be working in the recovery community," he says. "I think that's how I want to end my career."
He has already written two books -- "Powerful Words," which came out in May 2015, and the soon-to-be-released "The Graduate's Handbook," a gift book with words of wisdom and advice for high school and college students.
"Powerful Words" encourages speakers, writers and bloggers with a story to tell, to get in touch with "words of power" so they can connect with others on an emotional level, he said.
The motivation for that book came from Dr. Gaither's own "dark and devastating" time four years ago, when he went through a separation and divorce.
"I lost 40 pounds. I couldn't sleep," he recalls. "After about four months or five months, when I began feeling better, I had all this emotion in me and I started blogging and it made me feel better.
"I always wrote well but I never considered myself an author. After about a year of blogging, I thought, there's the basis of a book."
He pulled together parts of his own life, and those of his patients, although mentioning none by name, into book form, with plans to continue the effort.
He said he is halfway through his next book, called "Reignite -- From Burned Out to On Fire." That theme was also personal, sparked by a relatable topic he said is not unique to physicians.
"I find myself, at 61, kind of burned out by the system and feeling like I need to see what else I can do," he said. "One thing I'm going to try to do is be one voice trying to change the system."
The national "burnout rate," 55.5 percent for physicians, rose 10 percent in three years, he said. But the hallmark is the same for all professions, he said. Symptoms can include emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and becoming cynical, and lack of personal accomplishment.
"There are six causes of burnout," he explained, "work overload, lack of control, absence of fairness, breakdown of community, insufficient reward and conflicting values."
His own experience earned him the nickname "Dr. Burnout" a few years ago. It is one he will parlay into his own next chapter.
"I will be doing workshops for professional burnout, the first one in Sarasota, Florida, in June," he said. "I will be speaking on this and doing corporate workshops, working with the NCPHP (Physicians Health Program) to help physicians who have gotten in trouble with drugs and alcohol."
The mission, created by the N.C. Medical Society and state legislature, is to provide a safety net for physicians.
"Time is fleeting. It evaporates," he said. "If there's something in the world you want to do, you better do it.
"I feel like I want to be multi-faceted. I want to do other things if I can. I want to stretch in different directions. I want to see what else I can do."
Dr. Gaither came to Goldsboro in 1992. He had attended ECU School of Medicine, where he first met Dr. Keith Clark, his medical partner at Goldsboro Family Physicians. He still recalls how that came about, while doing an ob/gyn rotation at Wayne Memorial Hospital, when Dr. Stephen Lies invited him to a Wayne County Medical Group meeting.
Dr. Paul Bennett approached Dr. Gaither that night with a proposition. He was anticipating retirement and looking for someone to take over the practice.
"I took a look at it, thought it was a great opportunity. He was seeing like 50 people a day," Dr. Gaither said. "I didn't know if I could do it by myself, so I told Keith."
The two of them took over Wayne Medical Center, moving to their current location two years later.
The partners stopped taking new patients in January, when Dr. Gaither announced he would be departing at the end of this month. Some patients may stay on with Dr. Clark, and another partner may be secured in the future.
Dr. Gaither, credited with having the idea for WATCH, or Wayne Action Teams for Community Health, said he drew upon something he saw on TV about a mobile unit that went to rural areas providing health care needs to the more remote populations.
"Our county didn't have a free clinic," he said. "We had the Health Department. They charge on a sliding scale but it wasn't free.
"We needed an outlet for those that couldn't afford it, didn't qualify for Medicaid and didn't have third-party insurance."
The clinic for the uninsured, which has expanded to two other sites, has remained popular -- seeing 1,000 patients a month -- because of the mobile van that travels the county.
It has lasted much longer than he imagined, he admits now.
"I knew that if the funding dried up it would dry up," he said. "Sissy (Lee-Elmore, WATCH executive director) has done an outstanding job finding funds for the unit. It's far exceeded my expectations for longevity.
"Everybody stepped up, everybody on the board. Murray Porter and Dr. Joe McLamb have been tremendous in helping us raise money. Sissy, she's like a warrior poet doing battle with the bureaucracy of fundraising."
Dr. Gaither cited concerns over recent battles with the county about financial support.
"(Commission Chair) Joe Daughtery, he's the ax man in terms of funding," he said. "This is more important than, yes, a new agriculture building, more important than a new jail. It's more important than a lot of things they're expanding on right now.
"How can you be the best mom if you haven't had a Pap smear in seven years? If you're worrying about keeping your family fed. Yes, that's more important than the ag center."
As he prepares to leave his local practice -- he will continue on as WATCH medical director until another is found -- Dr. Gaither said his emotions are mixed.
"I go from goosebumps to flop sweats, excitement to terror, because it's a big move. I don't know how successful I will be in some of these but I'm going to do my best, leaving a known quantity for something unknown," he said, adding, "Medicine has been a great career. It really is truly a privilege to be that involved in patients' lives. It's a privilege to be on that side of the table."