Doctors at Putnam General Hospital want to remind local patients of the hospital's wide array of services and the high level of care, expertise, and equipment.
“This hospital, I think it’s kind of like a diamond in the rough. People don’t realize just how many services we have, everything that we can do here, and what we’re capable of,” Medical Director and soon-to-be Chief of Staff Dr. Daniel Bennett said early this month. “But it’s also nice because it’s a small-town hospital, so that we can treat you like family. And that’s kind of the goal I want to reach. I tell other doctors who work with us to treat everybody who comes in like their family. People feel welcome; we learn people’s names and hopefully see them repeatedly.”
Dr. Robert Stinson is among the medical practitioners at PGH who take Bennett’s advice to heart after setting up a private practice immediately next door to the hospital. As a board-certified family practice physician, he performs both outpatient and hospital work and serves as the official Putnam County Sheriff’s Office physician.
In the mid-'90s, after earning an undergraduate degree in just three and a half years from Indiana University Southeast and the University of Louisville, Stinson did head and neck radiation oncology research at Vanderbilt with rotations at Emory in Atlanta, where he met his wife, Dr. Allison Menke of Da Vinci Foot and Ankle Clinic in Greensboro.
Even Stinson seems surprised that he owned several pharmacy outlets in Georgia while dedicating himself to a new married life in the early 2000s. Still, by about 2010, he realized his drive and desire to practice medicine remained.
That led to selling the pharmacies and an early oncology stint at the Southern Arizona VA Center and then Tucson Medical Center in Arizona. This was followed by 14 months at Memorial Medical Center, a 195-bed Las Cruces, New Mexico facility.
Stinson said he had always wanted to pursue a career in rural medicine in Georgia. When he moved to Lake Country in 2014, he contacted Putnam General Hospital CEO Alan Horton, who told him that the hospital did not staff any hospitalists. So, Stinson instead went to Atrium Health Navicent Baldwin, a 140-bed acute care facility in Milledgeville.
“That’s where I met Dr. Bennett,” Stinson said. “And I did notice that a lot of people from our community and out of St. Mary’s [at Lake Oconee] were getting transferred to Baldwin for a higher level of care.”
Stinson said he didn’t understand why that was because he knew PGH could do more.
“We don’t do dialysis, but we can pretty much take care of everything else here,” Stinson pointed out. “And now we have Dr. (Carmine) Oddis with cardiology. He and Shannon Harper, his nurse practitioner, are coming to the hospital to handle cardiac. So, now we can keep a little sicker patients because I want to keep everybody here at Putnam General instead of going to Baldwin. After all, that’s better for everyone.”
Stinson also emphasized that he has been accepting new patients through his private practice on the PGH grounds since July. He concentrates on older teens, adults, and seniors, though he may occasionally treat children.
“I will see kids acutely, but I am also eyes wide open in our community,” Stinson stressed. “We have a pediatrician in town, and if I start seeing patient kids, that may prevent the pediatrician from staying due to business. So, I don’t see kids like they do because I think the community benefits from having a pediatrician. But if a kid has a sudden sore throat or the flu or something like that, I’d be happy to see them in the office.”
The bottom line for Stinson and Bennett is that Putnam General Hospital can do much more for patients than many people realize.
“We’ve got everything that I would want at a major center,” Bennett stated. “We’ve got ultrasound to do essential lines and start large bore IVs. We can use a video-assisted GlideScope for intubations if somebody needs to be intubated. We’ve got MRI CAT scans and digital radiology to see the pictures in real-time as the technician takes them. We don’t have to wait for them to return and be processed. I can get to the bedside and see the x-ray.”
Additionally, Bennett said he’s recently met with Dr. Thomas Parent, who moved to the Eatonton area from Naples, Fla., and is already taking patients through PGH.
“So, now we have orthopedic coverage, cardiology coverage, and we’ve got a lot of good doctors who are hiring more new doctors that will be coming in, which is very exciting,” he said.
To contact Dr. Stinson’s office or make an appointment, call 762-777-7800 or email frontdesk@stinsonfamilypractice.com