Introducing Dr. Gary Michael

Dr. Gary Michael’s path to Clinch River Health Services is just about as winding as the road that now leads to his Community Health Center (CHC) in southwest Virginia.  As a child, he did not plan to go into medicine or to work at a CHC, but instead aspired to be a quantum physicist like his older brother. But at age 13, Gary’s mother collapsed in his arms of a cerebral aneurism and by providing a correct diagnosis and later extended care for her, Gary entered the medical field.

Following his undergraduate degree from Wilkes University, Dr. Michael initially applied to his State Medical School, but was not accepted. According to Dr. Michael’s professors the rationale for this decision was  “his experience (with his mother) gave him too much insight and he cannot be molded by the Medical School” In the interim, Dr. Michael took two years off and worked as an orderly and a nurse’s aide. Dr. Michael views this experience as invaluable – as the pivotal moment where he learned how to treat people with individualized respect and to view them holistically instead of as a diagnosis. When he later re-applied and was accepted at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, his application was also submitted to the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) by a financial aid assistant – who later informed him that he had been accepted when he didn’t even know he was eligible or under consideration as an NHSC scholar!

Ironically, when Dr. Michael migrated from Pennsylvania to Virginia to serve his commitment as a National Health Service Corp scholar recipient, his work took him to Clinch River Health Services – where he re-connected with a colleague from Pennsylvania – Dr. Todd Cassel. Today Dr. Michael is the Medical Director of Clinch River Health Services, just across the mountain from Tennessee.

Dr. Michael has over 20 years of experience in community health, and extols the rewards of providing primary health care to a rural area, much like the hills of PA where he grew up. He appreciates the diversity of patients he serves (educated teachers, farmers who never left the farm, talented woodcraftsmen and quilt makers, and great cooks), but values most of all the great “family” environment of the staff and how they care about and help each other. 

The biggest surprise Dr. Michael found about working in community health is the “love of the patients for the health center.” After 20+ years, Dr. Michael knows first-hand what that means when he says, “This is where you can make a difference in the lives of many people….in a community.”

This blog is the opinion of the Healthcare Ambassador of the Month, and as such may not reflect the express views of the Virginia Community Healthcare Association.