Man of the town

John P. Ramsay, M.D. | 2008-2009 TAFP Family Physician of the Year

Story and photos by Kate McCann

“I’ll never forget the time” was a phrase heard again and again at the Family Physician of the Year reception held in August at the Hill Country Wellness Center in Fredericksburg. Hundreds of people lined up out the door and around the corner for their moment to shake the hand of the local family doctor who has made a tremendous impact in their lives. Beaming with pride, they shared their stories with John P. Ramsay, M.D., the 2008-2009 TAFP award recipient, whom many consider to be part of their families for the role he has played delivering their children, leading them through difficult diagnoses, comforting their loved ones in their final hours, counseling them in times of need and numerous other contributions of the small town family doc.

Ramsay calls himself a relational person. With a beaming smile that welcomes everyone he meets, he has the ability to draw people in and make them feel instantly at ease. As family friend Glenn Herzog says, “he’s a great doctor, but he uses his gift of connecting with people. That’s where this comes from—compassion.”

“From a young age I knew I had compassion for people and knew I’d work as a physician or a pastor or a teacher,” Ramsay says. “I joke with patients that I’m a great doctor, but they know I feel blessed to be in the situation I am. I’m the person who operates within my gift. God has given me a gift where I can connect to people.”

Ramsay and his wife, fellow family physician Suzanne Ellison, M.D., put down roots in the small community of Fredericksburg 24 years ago when it was half the size of its current population of 9,000. The quaint town, nestled in the Texas Hill Country, has German heritage and a reputation built on its artisans and lovely bed-and-breakfasts. An homage to a simpler time, the atmosphere appeals to city folk looking for a place to slow down, which happens quite literally as travelers venture from the winding countryside along Highway 290 and end up cruising down Main Street, a wide boulevard lined with shops and bustling with shoppers.

A mile south of Main Street is Cornerstone Clinic, which Ramsay and Ellison opened in 1991 with another family physician, Mark Eden, M.D. In their years there, the practice has grown to encompass six family physicians within Fredericksburg and a satellite clinic in Comfort, 20 miles south. Like the town, Ramsay’s practice is a place to feel at home, anchored by the doctor’s positive attitude and dedication to medicine that inspires an unwavering loyalty in his patients and enthusiasm in his staff.

Lisa Moritz, L.V.N., calls Ramsay “fun to work with.” “Even when it’s crazy, he’s so laid back,” she says. “He’s good with patients and takes an equal amount of time with each one.” In turn, Ramsay’s patients most often cite his willingness to listen no matter how long they need to talk. “He listens whether I cry or whatever I do,” says Gertrude Roos, a patient of more than 20 years. “He always gives me a hug, which I need.”

“There are not a lot of doctors who take a lot of time with patients,” says Serina Prosise, L.V.N., the most recent addition to Ramsay’s staff. “They know Dr. Ramsay cares about them, not just the job. He does this because he likes to help people.”

Ramsay spends much of his time at Cornerstone Clinic in Fredericksburg, but also spends a half-day each week in Comfort, practices general family medicine at Hill Country Memorial Hospital and has a large nursing home practice.

No matter where he is or how busy he is, Ramsay enters the room with that characteristic smile, immediately mirrored on the faces of his patients. He greets each one like an old friend, with a pat on the back, a warm handshake or a hug, spending the first few minutes catching up about kids, the family business and other interests before discussing health concerns. He sees getting to know his patients as very important. “You have to have a relationship with people so they can tell you how they are,” he says. “If I understand their mind problems, then I can get to the physical problems a lot more quickly.”

For Ramsay, this is more than simply making small talk to uncover the reason behind a condition; it’s a genuine interest in what’s going on in his community. That’s why Ramsay chose family medicine—he liked the idea of treating whole families and wanted to settle in a place where he could maintain close relationships with them. Jeff Bourgeois, former administrator at Hill Country Memorial Hospital, says Ramsay embodies the term “family physician.” “He has the physiological knowledge plus an interest in the person and a way of developing a connection with people he cares for that is second to none.”

Hanging in the hallway of Ramsay’s office is the Wall of Deliveries, two large bulletin boards packed with photos of newborns and school photos that are each tagged with the child’s birthday. “Each child this man delivers is part of his family,” patient Sherry Rode says, and these photos represent the tip of the iceberg—a rough estimate places his delivery count around 3,000 babies since moving to Fredericksburg. Ramsay has maintained a thriving obstetrics practice from the start because he “enjoyed delivering babies and felt that was a great way to become close to people. Lots of times you get your patients because they come in and are sick. With obstetrics, everyone’s happy about the new baby and that begins their story.”

The Rodes’ story began this way. Ramsay delivered Sherry’s second son, Tyler, and continued to care for him when he was diagnosed with a rare childhood cancer at age 3. She and her husband, Wayne, began Tyler’s treatments at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, with some milder doses of chemotherapy administered at the local hospital in Fredericksburg.

A few months into treatment, Tyler got pneumonia and was admitted to the hospital where Ramsay looked after him. He wasn’t getting better due to his low white blood cell count, so Ramsay recommended getting him to M. D. Anderson as soon as possible. Knowing that it would take too much time to get an ambulance to come to Fredericksburg from San Antonio or Houston, the Rodes loaded Tyler in their Suburban with his oxygen tanks and other medical equipment to make the five-hour drive. Without hesitation, Ramsay climbed into the car and rode with them, Sherry says. Once he got Tyler settled—well after one o’clock in the morning—one of the Rodes’ relatives drove Ramsay back to Fredericksburg to be on call the next day.

“Not only did the physicians at M. D. Anderson call Dr. Ramsay a saint for doing such an act, we think he is one also,” Sherry says. “After that moment, we considered Dr. Ramsay part of our family. I can’t imagine that there would be too many other doctors who would accompany a patient that distance.” Ramsay served as one of the pallbearers at Tyler’s funeral after he lost his seven-month battle with cancer, and continued to support the family by offering support and advice to encourage them through the difficult time.

When the Rodes decided to have a third child, Ramsay delivered little Clay, “and there wasn’t a dry eye in the operating room,” Sherry says. “All the times he was there for us, those are the things you don’t forget,” Wayne adds.

A community within his community, Ramsay is a committed father to his five kids—Lily, Robert, Scott, Kate and Jonathan. He met his wife Suzie, “the Texas blonde of his dreams,” while they were in medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. They had their first child, Jonathan, during their third year of residency at Tallahassee Memorial Regional Medical Center in Florida and Ramsay continued his training with a fourth-year fellowship in obstetrics. Though Ramsay had also grown up in Sarasota, Fla., Suzie convinced her husband that Texas was the place to raise a family and they began their search of towns “within 100 miles in any direction of Austin,” she says.

They liked Fredericksburg from the start, but it had a higher doctor-to-patient ratio than other areas, so they continued visiting surrounding small towns in the Texas Hill Country. However, something about Fredericksburg made them keep coming back, Suzie says, and they returned to join the family practice of Hardin Perry, M.D.

Ramsay recalls that first year when he was extremely busy delivering babies and establishing himself as a new family physician in town. It was difficult, but he says his wife had “incredible grace for me as I grasped how to be the family physician I wanted to be and make time for my family.” He also gained prominence in the community, and with that, others encouraged him to become more involved. “The first year he came he was such a natural leader,” Herzog says. “Everyone came by and asked him to serve on the school board for Fredericksburg ISD and he was elected by an overwhelming amount.”

During the years when his kids were growing up, he would frequently take them to the public pool or to run errands at shops around town on Tuesdays when he wasn’t working. His daughter, Kate, now 23, says that everyone in town knew who Ramsay was. Back in that time when dialing four numbers was enough to make a local call, Ramsay didn’t own a beeper. “If they needed me, the hospital would call the pool, restaurants, the hardware store. Someone would come find me to tell me the hospital was calling. It was such a small town that they knew my schedule. Nobody minded.”

Kate remembers her dad being very busy when they were little, but she had a sense he was doing something very important. “He was always very present even when he was working a lot.” Family friend Robert Bourquein, D.D.S., M.S., agrees. “He’s a hard worker, but he puts his kids and family first.” Ramsay became close friends with Herzog and Bourquein through their mutual love of running and basketball. “I remember one adult track meet in Mason, he was playing with his kids, then ran the 400, then went back to playing with his kids. He has his priorities straight: God, family, friends,” Bourquein says.

“He loved getting excited with us about what we loved,” Kate says, “whether that was basketball or bow-hunting or Johannes Brahms.” This is especially true with sports, which oldest son Jonathan says were some of the best arenas for him to relate to his sons and daughters. Even with a busy practice, Ramsay made a commitment to coach his kids in basketball at Heritage School, a nondenominational private Christian school for which he also served on the founding board. Setting aside time for his family was essential for him to maintain close ties. “If I said I would be a basketball coach, that would ensure I would spend time with them during their formative years, through wins and losses, good times and bad,” Ramsay says.

In March 2008 he traveled to Italy to run the Rome Marathon with Bourquein and three of his kids. “Running a marathon with your best friend and your three oldest children is pretty hard to beat,” Ramsay says. “The afterglow was incredible because this was my kids’ first marathon and having my fearless 87-year-old mom and my wife there to enjoy it with us made it all the more special.”

Ramsay has run three marathons in his life, the first being the 1988 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., and the second in San Antonio. He’s planning to run his fourth in the coming year or so. For him, running helps keep him productive and provides another opportunity to connect to his patients and community. “Dr. Ramsay is an inspiration to stay healthy and in patient care,” says Kathi Herzog, who sees Ellison for her primary care while her husband, Glenn, sees Ramsay. “John and Suzie promote being healthy always. You don’t always find a doctor who is such an example.”

On days he isn’t delivering babies or seeing patients, Ramsay runs Saturday mornings and some weekdays with the “Crabapple Runners,” named because of their running route on Lower Crabapple Road in Fredericksburg that begins and ends at the Herzogs’ bed-and-breakfast, the Hiding Place. Though these runs involve serious distances—spanning six, 10, 12 or more miles at a time—the distances melt away as Ramsay and his friends tell stories on the road. This is why “running with Dad” is one of his daughter Kate’s favorite things to do. “Getting to run with Dad means stories, and stories—ever since we were little and would beg for little league memories or tales of the medieval Yasmar family—mean good times.”

Ramsay is a natural storyteller, and more importantly, a story-listener, which he learned from his father, Murray. “Everyone who came to our home soon was brought out by my father to tell their story, especially people of a quieter nature,” Ramsay says. “Needless to say, our home was a popular place for my parents’ friends and my sibling’s friends, so I grew up listening to and loving people’s stories, not just politics or sports, but hearing about people’s families, where they came from and what they enjoyed.”

Stories have always played a large role in the Ramsay home, mostly at the dinner table and Sunday lunch. “We would sit around the table and listen for an hour after all the food was eaten,” Kate says. “Nobody would leave; nobody really wanted it to end. Of course lots of stories got recycled over the years and those were the best.

“One time,” she continues, “Dad in his famous white Chevy rear-ended a car at a stoplight right in front of the hospital. He groans, gets out of the truck, and walks up to the car he’s just hit. The driver is fumbling to find her glasses, and after she puts them on sees my dad outside and rolls down her window. ‘John!’ she says, ‘I’m SO glad you’re here, somebody just rear-ended me!’”

Through the years Ramsay has served in other leadership roles in his community: as medical director for local nursing homes; volunteer at the local free clinic; board member at the local hospital; and in various positions at Hill Country Evangelical Free Church including on the deacon board, board of elders, Sunday school teacher, and on mission trips to Cameroon and Cuba.

These roles have changed as his children have gotten older—he is no longer on the board of directors at Heritage, for example, and has cut down on coaching—but he is still well known for his insight and ability to listen to all sides to make an informed decision. “He really studies situations and likes to hear what everyone is thinking,” Suzie says. “If he knows what to do, he steps up and does it, but if it’s a group situation, he lets the natural leaders step up and gives input when it’s needed.”

John Hierholzer, pastor of HCEFree, agrees. “When [the Heritage board] comes to a difficult decision, they call him up and ask for his wisdom if they ever feel they need wise counsel. John’s decision is the last word; he is that respected.”

Kristi Stafford, M.D., now a partner in Cornerstone Clinic, remembers her early days after residency when Ramsay took her under his wing to show her the ropes of medicine and business. “When I came out of residency, everything was new and fresh,” Stafford says. “I could call him anytime, day or night, even when he wasn’t on call. He never got irritated and would take time out of his busy day.”

“My success as a family physician is in part due to his patience and kindness,” she wrote in his Family Physician of the Year nomination packet. “Since his start here, many family physicians have joined the community and they, too, have benefited from his spirit and commitment to the medical field.”

Besides being an inspiration to other family physicians, Ramsay also frequently hosts students in his practice to promote family medicine to the next generation. By allowing them to see his interactions with patients and the bond there, he communicates his love of family medicine. “I enjoy students and, not surprisingly, tell them lots of stories,” Ramsay says. “One of my emphases with them is to connect the disease process to a real person. By giving them a sense of who the patient is apart from their disease, I give them a taste of how family medicine is different from other specialties. In addition, regardless of the specialty they end up in, I take the diseases out of the book and make them real instead of learning about diseases to recite facts and take tests. I put the facts into the story of the patient.”

Maintaining a busy schedule in the community and at the office, many people would be exhausted. Ramsay isn’t superhuman and admits that he sometimes feels overextended, but he says his gifts are best utilized in groups of people and he is recharged by these relationships. This is especially true in his office. “There are times in practice when it’s better than others, but what helps me is the mutual energy I get from my patients. How do you think I feel when Sherry Rode walks in? That relationship goes to an extraordinarily deep level. Like when you’re with friends with whom you have gone through hard times, you want to be with them because they create a certain energy in you.”

When it was announced that Ramsay had been named TAFP’s Family Physician of the Year, staff and friends hung banners, balloons and signs all over his office and around Fredericksburg, which of course flattered and embarrassed the humble physician. With the patient reception being the second of two local celebrations of the award, the first coincided with an annual dinner sponsored by the combined medical staff and hospital board, which 20 to 30 people normally attend, Ramsay says. Once the word got out that he would be honored for the award, however, more than 150 people turned out to congratulate him.

“As I stood up to say ‘thank you’ and accept the plaque they gave me I was stunned to see how many people I really knew in the audience—babies I had delivered for them, difficult patients I had cared for with them, depressions I had brought them through and unfortunately even some divorces I had supported them through. I certainly got a sense that they were proud of me but also that they were honestly sharing some of the joy in the winning of the award. Because I knew them so well, many of them rightfully felt part of my success.”

Ramsay always finds his way back to his community, a community he has built through a vibrant family medicine practice, devotion to family and leadership in Fredericksburg, which are held together through his countless stories and memories. That’s why Jeff Bourgeois requested there be another collective thanks “from the community, for individual patients, from the hospital. We wouldn’t know what to do without him.”

With that, to the 2008-2009 TAFP Family Physician of the Year, Dr. John Ramsay, thanks.