Dr. Richard Griffith has found a medical home in Branson, starting June 3 as the director of urgent medical care at Cox Medical Center Branson. Griffith, who worked most recently for two years at Jordan Valley Community Health Center, had a 20-year career as a doctor and researcher in the U.S. Air Force. A former family physician in Indianapolis, Griffith’s military career culminated in 2011 after four years of service as a senior director and assistant surgeon general for modernization. He moved to Branson to be close to family.
Pentagon to Presleys“I finished my family-practice residency in Indianapolis in 1978. I did 12 years of private practice. I delivered a lot of babies; I did pediatrics and adult medicine. At the beginning of the first Gulf War in 1990, I came up on active duty with the Air Force and decided to stay. I had a younger partner who bought my practice. After commanding at two or three different levels, I ended up as one of the five colonels who are assistant surgeon general to the Air Force surgeon. Modernization was half information-management systems for medical people and the other half was medical research. I was attached to the Pentagon the last four years. I think my retirement date was in January 2011, and I went to work (at Jordan Valley Community Health Center) in Springfield because I retired north of Branson, next door to the grandchildren.”
Branson Landing“We managed a large portfolio of funds that Congress had given to the Air Force to do research, and some of it was directly involved with the war effort – like how to improve helmets for active duty troops with all the explosions and bombs going on and the concussions and head injuries. Specific to the Air Force [was] how to improve the care we give in the air. What we have are wounded folks overseas who are very sick. They are on a ventilator, they are getting blood; they’ve had amputations. These are severely wounded troops, who in previous wars would probably not (have) survived, that we need to put on one of our airplanes and fly 8,000 miles back to the states. So, how do we maintain them in a noisy, cold aircraft? Lots of our research dollars went into that. … We had followed the Air Force around the world, including seven years in Europe and it was time to settle down.”
Jordan Valley Service“Jordan Valley in Springfield just does an absolutely outstanding job of taking care of a category of patients that are very challenging at times. It (treats) a lot of the folks without insurance, some of the street people, those on Medicaid – a lot of the folks that some doctors won’t see. Greene County and Jordan Valley get subsidized to take care of those folks, and it was my privilege to provide adult services and pediatric services for two years there because there was no practice opportunity here. … Thirty miles up the road, compared to some of the other experiences traveling with the Air Force, is almost your backyard. So, I commuted every day. I’m retired from the Air Force, but I’m not retired from contributing to my community with health care services.”
Doc to 6 Million“I’m 64, and as long as my health holds – and it has so far – I would expect to be here five years or longer, depending on what my boss thinks. … About half of our patients are the local folks where their doctor is just too busy to see them and they’ve got an earache or sore throat or sprained their ankle and they need help, but they don’t need to go to the emergency room. The other half are the 6 million people who come to Branson on vacation every year and they get sick. Their asthma gets bad and they forgot their medicine, and on and on it goes. It is a very interesting group of people. They are very positive and glad that someone will take care of them away from home. I saw people yesterday from Oklahoma, Texas and Minnesota, and I think New Jersey.”
Becoming a Doctor“I love people. I studied chemistry and math at Purdue for four years between ’67 and ’71. That was great. I enjoyed science, but I loved people, not test tubes. So, I applied to med school and was actually shocked that they let me in. That way I could deal with real people with real issues and provide the care they needed. Along with the antibiotics and the splints for the sprained ankles, I could connect with them and their problems and their pain. That’s what family doctors do.”
