By Dhiren Shah
Carewell Health, formerly known as East Orange General Hospital, celebrated its first Annual Women Physician’s Day on February 4, 2022, at the East Pavilion building at 12 o’clock. According to history, the first female physician was Elizabeth Blackwell. She graduated in 1849 and became the first woman to be granted an MD degree.
The Master of Ceremonies and President of the Medical Staff at Carewell Health, Dr. Hemant Patel, said that they decided to celebrate Women Physician’s Day on Blackwell’s birthday, which is February 3rd. With the best possible scheduling available to them, Carewell celebrated her birthday as well as Women Physician’s Day on February 4th. Many physicians got together for an award ceremony and lunch. Due to scheduling for doctors, many awardees and physicians could not attend the event.
Dr. Patel said that interestingly Ms. Blackwell was rejected from multiple medical schools. Finally, she was accepted in one medical school as a joke. To everyone’s surprise she stood at the top of the class.
Dr. Patel said that there was an article published in 2017 and they compared male physicians and female physicians. Female physicians came out ahead when taking care of patients, and especially for communicating with patients and families. The care was about the same.
Also, he added that if anyone gives out too many awards, that dilutes things out and does not give any flavor, So, they decided to award 10 senior and accomplished women physicians, He invited Dr. Anuj Mehta, Chief Medical Officer, and Dr. Ramdas Kumar who could not make it due to scheduling, Dr. Jonathan Markley Secretary/treasurer, Dr. Abbas Zahedi, chairman, Dr. Shah, chairman of medicine, Dr. George Johnson, former CMO, and Dr. Robert Clark to give out the awards to honor women’s physicians.
They have awarded three physicians present Dr. Ruth Clark, Dr. Nirmala Saraf, Dr. Nirmala Kania. The rest of the awards will be handed over to them later. The other awardees are: Dr. Pankaja Achar, Dr. Donna Chrisanderson, Dr. Nina Coffin, Dr. Audrey Hinds, Dr. Saroj Sehgal, Dr. Darshi Sunderam and Dr. Aruna Yeldandi.
Dr. Robert Clark said, “I knew Dr. Ruth Clark before I was a doctor. She took very good care of my mother.” Now both are working in the same hospital, what a small world.
Dr. Don Alcuino, Chief Financial Officer, said that the new company has a lot of initial improvements and implemented when comes to patients’ care. He added that as soon as the patient comes to the door, the senior leaders have implemented measures for better patient care.
In response to my question about the duties of the CMO, Dr. Anuj Mehta, Chief Medical Officer, said, “The CMO actually oversees the quality of care that is delivered within the hospital and tries to address any deviation from the standard of care as early as possible. Also, responsible for accreditation and regulatory approvals for the hospital.”
Dr. Mehta said that this will continue to improve the good relations with the community.
“We will have another event within a month and one more maybe in another 2 to 3 months.”
