As published in Toledo Business Journal - July 1, 2009
2009 Healthcare Heroes
recognized
The healthcare profession is one where acts of heroism often go
unnoticed, because they happen
every day. Healthcare Heroes do not act
for praise, recognition, or job advancement. Indeed, their
stories are
not always picked up by the local media or communicated outside of
their
organizations. Rather, Healthcare Heroes are motivated by a
desire to make a difference in the
lives they touch.
Healthcare Heroes was launched in 2008 to recognize the
extraordinary impact that exceptional
healthcare professionals have on
the healthcare industry and on the quality of life in their
communities.
The First Annual Healthcare Heroes Recognition Ceremony, held on
June 25, 2009, recognizes
the extraordinary contributions healthcare
makes to the quality of life in northwest Ohio and
southeast Michigan.
Each honoree has received an award for the honor.
Healthcare Heroes has honored 42 candidates and five recipients this
year, including a Lifetime
Achievement Award. To qualify for the
Lifetime Achievement Award, a healthcare leader must have
left a mark
on healthcare through a career (of at least 25 years) of heroic acts,
compassion, honor,
and integrity that have helped to put our region at
the forefront of healthcare.
The Healthcare Heroes exemplify the contributions healthcare makes to the region.
A hero is usually an ordinary person doing extraordinary things,
distinguished for his or her courage
or ability. They may also be
someone who is a model for others that has performed a heroic deed
and/or tirelessly given of his/her time, talent, and expertise to
improve health.
A Healthcare Hero could be a physician, nurse, allied health
professional, researcher,
administrator, educator, or caregiver that
has gone above and beyond the call of duty. Healthcare
Heroes should
demonstrate honesty, integrity, humility, courage, and commitment.
For example, a Healthcare Hero may be a healthcare professional who
exemplifies extraordinary
quality and compassionate patient care; is
breaking new ground in the healthcare arena through a
new advancement,
improvement of efficiencies, or through a new initiative; is providing
research
and is on the cutting edge of clinical research to ultimately
improve patient care; is an
accomplished healthcare educator that is
inspiring the next generation of healthcare providers; is a
healthcare
leader who exceeds all expectations when it comes to influencing growth
and
development of healthcare to meet the needs of the community; or is
a healthcare provider making
a meaningful contribution to community
health improvement, including but not limited to increasing
access to
healthcare for the low income uninsured.
Gordon Food Service; The Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio; and
Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick,
LLP are Gold Sponsors for Healthcare
Heroes while Gilmore, Jasion & Mahler, LTD and Hylant
Group are
Silver Sponsors. Toledo Business Journal is the media
partner and Kristian Brown,
13ABC, is the host and emcee for the event.
Joyce Granberry, RNC has devoted her professional life to the
advancement of women, providing
them with the knowledge and means to
plan their lives via her work as one of the Toledo area’s
longest
practicing nurse practitioners.
As a child, Granberry helped provide care for her grandmother after
she suffered a life-altering
stroke, which led Granberry to pursue a
career in nursing. She was the first African American
student at
Hamilton General Hospital, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She came to
northwest Ohio in
1960 and during her career she has worked at St.
Charles Hospital, The Toledo Hospital, Planned
Parenthood, the Family
Planning Health Council, and most recently at Women & Family
Services in
Defiance, Ohio.
Over the course of her 49-year career, Granberry has provided
medical care to thousands of poor
women who could not afford some or
all of the cost of their care. Granberry’s personal mission is to
prevent unintended pregnancies. Along with medical services, she has
taught her patients to
maintain good health and plan their families;
she has also counseled them on important and
sensitive aspects of their
lives. Granberry provides inspiration to the patients she serves and
her
co-workers. She cherishes the phone calls, cards, and contact she
continues to have with her
patients and colleagues.
Granberry also added to quality medical resources in the area,
volunteering as a hands-on role
model, resource person, and preceptor
for student nurses, student nurse practitioners, and student
physician’s assistants. She helped these students with their required
training in a clinical setting for
six to eight months before taking
their certification exams, while simultaneously performing her
regular
job duties.
These combined efforts positively impacted the community by helping
to improve health –
especially among low-income mothers and their
children.
Up until the agency closed in May, Granberry worked at Women &
Family Services in Defiance,
making the 60-mile trek twice a week to
provide healthcare services to those less fortunate out of
compassion
for her fellow man.
Kenneth A. Kropp, M.D. considers his greatest achievements in
healthcare to be the development
of a premier residency program as well
as his role in stimulation of interesting medical students
into in
entering the urology program at the University of Toledo (UT) College
of Medicine. In his
time at UT, he guided 66 physicians through
residency, shaping their careers in the process.
Kropp came to Toledo in 1971 to serve as an associate professor of
surgery and division chief of
urology at the then Medical College of
Ohio (MCO). In 1978, he was promoted to professor of
surgery and a year
later was appointed professor of pediatrics. Before his appointment to
chairman of urology when it gained department status in 1991, he served
as acting chairman of
surgery for one year on three separate occasions.
Under his guidance at MCO, urology grew to 29 faculty members and 61 employees.
Contributing to this growth was Kropp’s work in making the specialty
part of all medical student
clinical rotations and his efforts in
strengthening the department’s basic science research program.
He further distinguished the department by performing the first
renal transplant procedure in
northwest Ohio, and today the UT Medical
Center’s kidney transplant program is among the
busiest in the country
with nearly 2,000 procedures performed since 1972. His dedication to
renal
replacement therapy helped fuel this program, which is unique in
the area.
Kropp is also recognized as a master surgeon in the subspecialty of
pediatric urology, with over 80
peer-reviewed publications to his name.
One of his innovations, the Kropp-Angwafo bladder neck
reconstruction
procedure, is now widely used to help treat urinary incontinence in
children.
He is recognized nationally as a leader in pediatric urology, having
held positions on several
committees and societies for urologists
including the American Board of Urology and American
College of
Surgeons (ACS). He has served as president of the Society for Pediatric
Urology, the
Urologic Society for Transplantation and Vascular Surgery,
and the Society for University
Urologists (of which he was a founding
member).
Kropp received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American
Urological Association in
2008, given for outstanding achievements and
contributions to urology residency education,
research, productivity,
conducting seminars, and international activities. His son, Bradley P.
Kropp,
M.D., also received the organization’s Gold Cystoscope Award,
given for outstanding contributions
to the profession during the decade
following their residency training, at the same time. It is
believed to
be the first time a father and son were simultaneously honored at the
event.
In addition, Kenneth Kropp has received the Children’s Miracle
Network Endowed Chair for
Children’s Services in 1996, the Medical
Award for Outstanding Service in the Renal Field for the
Kidney
Foundation in 1998, and the Award of Distinction for the Toledo
Surgical Society in 1998.
In 2008, Kropp stepped down as chair of the urology department at
UT. Today, his support for the
organization continues in the form of a
gift from him and his wife Patsy to an endowment named in
his honor.
The income from the endowment provides funding for research and
expanded programs
and aid in faculty recruitment and retention.
Kropp is an advocate for the health of his patients and he helps to
teach the parents of his patients
to be advocates for the health of
their children. He and his wife have firsthand experience, as – in
addition to their own family – they have parented 64 newborn foster
babies.
Over the course of her career, Elizabeth S. Ruppert, M.D. has shown
a long-term focus on children
with special healthcare needs, both in
her role as professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of
Ohio
(MCO) – now the University of Toledo College of Medicine – and as an
advocate on their
behalf in the community.
Dr. Ruppert received her bachelor’s degree at Tulane University in
New Orleans, LA and her
medical degree from The Ohio State University
College of Medicine. She began her medical
practice as a neonatologist
taking care of sick babies. This instilled in her a commitment to work
as a pediatrician to help children live productive lives despite their
health challenges and to prevent
poor birth outcomes through community
intervention.
In her tenure at MCO from 1977 to 2003, Ruppert contributed to the
education of hundreds of
students in their medical school years and
pediatric residency. Aside from her duties as professor
of pediatrics,
she also served in the developmental and behavioral pediatrics and
ambulatory
pediatrics departments.
As an advocate in the community, Ruppert helped establish the
EduCare Center and the
Prescribed Pediatric Center (PPC) in 1993, which
were created to provide early services and
parental support for
families with children that have special healthcare needs. She
continues to
support both organizations, currently serving as PPC’s
medical director.
She is also a founding member of the Lucas County Initiative to
Improve Birth Outcomes, which
utilizes cutting-edge strategies to find
low-income, at risk mothers; connect them to care; and
measure health
outcomes.
Ruppert has helped the initiative raise almost $750,000 to pilot
performance-based care and
coordination that has received attention
from the US Health Resources and Services
Administration (HRSA) and the
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Another initiative launched during Ruppert’s tenure as president of
the Ohio Chapter of the
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) from 1995
to 2000 was Reach Out and Read, an early
literacy program used by all
pediatric residency programs in Ohio as well as hundreds of Ohio
pediatricians and family doctors in private offices and clinics. The
AAP also formed a charitable
organization and received the Outstanding
Large Chapter award during her presidency.
In the 1980s, Ruppert collaborated with other professionals to
write, lobby, and testify for the
successful passage of State
legislation to test newborns for hearing impairment at birth and to
provide appropriate follow-up if any issues were found.
In the community, she has served as chair of the United Way board of
trustees from 2000 to 2003
and spearheaded the development of an Early
Childhood Initiative, which the organization
continues to support today.
Other community organizations Ruppert has supported include Planned
Parenthood of Greater
Toledo, Inc.; Toledo Crittenden Services; WSOS
Project Head Start; Association for Children with
Learning Disabilities
Ohio Chapter; Easter Seals of Northwest Ohio; March of Dimes – Toledo;
St.
Anthony’s Villa; Camp Courageous, Inc.; Lucas County Board of
Mental Retardation and
Developmental Disabilities; Lucas County Family
and Children’s First Cabinet Council; and the
Toledo Community
Foundation.
Dr. Richard D. Ruppert, M.D. has helped to shape healthcare
education in northwest Ohio. As the
third president of the (formerly
named) Medical College of Ohio (MCO) from 1977-1993, Ruppert’s
greatest
accomplishment was the expansion of both the school’s physical and
intellectual footprints
to meet the healthcare needs of the community.
During his tenure, the number of faculty and students increased in
each of MCO’s four schools –
the School of Allied Health, Graduate
Education, the School of Medicine, and the School of
Nursing – to the
point where over 2,000 students were receiving their instructions or
clinical
experiences at any given time.
To accommodate those increases, Ruppert led the efforts that
resulted in MCO constructing a 270-
bed University hospital; Dowling
Hall, which houses faculty offices and Coughlin Pavilion, a 36-bed
rehabilitation hospital; Kobacker Center, a children’s and adolescent’s
psychiatric center; and
Henry L. Morse Center, a sports facility
designed to improve exercise programs for recovering
patients and the
prevention of disease, which also includes an exercise facility for
faculty and
students. An ambulatory care center was also established,
which was renamed the Richard D.
Ruppert Health Center by the board of
trustees at the time of his retirement in 1993.
Research grants coming into MCO ranked it third in the state for
external funding. To capitalize on
this funding, Ruppert developed the
Northwest Ohio Technology Center in order to interest private
industries to build on the campus with development of new technologies
and research. At times,
new research development was a joint effort
with MCO faculty.
Ruppert also works in other ways to promote economic development,
medical care, and medical
education in Toledo and northwest Ohio.
From 1988 to 1997, he served on the board of the Toledo-Lucas County
Port Authority, holding the
position of chairman from 1993 to 1996. He
also served on the board of the Toledo Trust Bank
from 1978 to 1990 and
continued to serve with Society Bank and KeyBank as Toledo Trust’s
successors, retiring in 2000.
Ruppert served on the Physicians’ Insurance Company of Ohio board
from 1988 to 1995 and
continues on as a member of its successor, PICO
Holdings, Inc. of La Jolla, California, as
chairman of its audit
committee. He has also been an active member of The American Society of
Internal Medicine and served as its president in 1992 and 1993.
In 1992, he served on former Ohio Governor George Voinovich’s Ohio
Board of Regents task
force, “Managing for the Future.” He has also
served as chairman of the United Way Campaign for
Northwest Ohio and a
board member of the Junior League of Toledo from 1990 to 1996.
Other organizations Ruppert has supported over the years include the
Ohio Historical Society,
Lucas County Improvement Corporation (LCIC),
Rotary Club of Toledo, Hayes Presidential Center,
and the Toledo Museum
of Art (TMA).
Prior to his tenure at MCO, Ruppert received his undergraduate and
medical degrees from the
Ohio State University (OSU). He served on the
faculty of the OSU College of Medicine from 1965
to 1974 in a variety
of roles – from assistant professor / gastroenterology to medical
director,
patient services – and as vice chancellor, health affairs of
the Ohio Board of Regents from 1974 to
1977.
Dr. Ruppert has been recognized with a variety of awards that
acknowledge his tremendous
contributions to medicine and the community,
including being named a Master Fellow of the
American College of
Physicians and receiving the Outstanding Community Service Award from
the
International Rotary.
According to David K. Scheer, M.D., the thrills and challenges of
medicine are what have kept him
practicing at West Central Medicine
Group for over 60 years. In that time, he has come to consider
his
ability to help others – to diagnose a sick patient, bring them back to
health, and see the joy in
their faces when they are better – his
greatest accomplishment.
He has also gained a reputation for being a true partner, a doctor
with whom others are honored to
practice medicine. Scheer builds
quality relationships with other physicians, which allows the
practice
to operate more smoothly and focus on patient care.
His office – with mounds of medical textbooks, dozens of anatomical
models, and certificates and
diplomas fighting for space on the walls –
displays Scheer’s dedication and unprecedented work
ethic. In 2006, his
number of patient encounters ranked him in the top 10 of internal
medicine
physicians within ProMedica Physician Group.
Scheer’s continued training also shows his dedication to medicine.
For over 50 years, he has
taken continuing medical education courses,
starting before such courses were required. By that
time, he had
accumulated more than enough hours to surpass the requirement, yet
still continued to
take classes.
While a diligent student, Scheer is also a diligent educator. Years
ago, he taught at the former
Maumee Valley Hospital before it became
part of the former Medical College of Ohio. More
importantly though, is
the education he provides his patients allowing them to become
advocates
of their own health and well-being.
Scheer’s dedication to his patients is also shown by the house calls
he made well into the 1980s,
long after most other physicians
discontinued the practice. Every Sunday, he could be found at a
neighbor’s where he’d be inside checking blood pressure, continuing
until both husband and wife
passed away.
In a desire to better serve his patients, Scheer chose the
organizations he volunteered services to
carefully. However, he still
managed to work with the American Heart Association, the Veteran’s
Hospital in Michigan, and a summer camp for diabetic children. He has
also served on committees
for the local Academy of Medicine.
His service to the community continues today as he is still
providing high-quality, compassionate
medical care to his patients on a
full-time basis. Scheer’s hospital rounds begin at 7 a.m., and he
is
busy finishing paperwork and returning calls 12 hours later – long
after both patients and staff
have left the building.