Season 5 Episode 2 – Origin Story Revisited: 2000

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Welcome to Take Good Care podcast, an endeavor that grew out of our love for obstetrics and gynecology. Our aim and mission is to serve as a source of vital information for women of all races, ages, and walks in life. I am Dr. Mironda Williams.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

I’m Dr. Deanna Guthrie.

Dr. Karen Greene:

And I’m Dr. Karen Greene.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Welcome to our show. Welcome to this episode of Take Good Care podcast. I’m Dr. Mironda Williams.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

I’m Dr. Deanna Guthrie.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

And I am Dr. Karen Greene.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Welcome to season five of Take Good Care podcast. We’re excited about this season for a number of reasons. We have a lot of exciting changes happening with our practice. We also have a lot of exciting things that will be happening with the podcast that you’ll be seeing as we go along this season. But before we move forward to the future, we thought we would take a moment to go back and do an origin story revisit. In the very first season of our podcast, season one, we did an episode on our origin story, mainly talking about how the three of us got together as partners, as friends, and as business associates. And so this time we really thought with everything that’s happening in our practice and with the podcast, that we wanted to give a historical overview of how the practice became the practice, how Peachtree City Obstetrics and Gynecology became Peachtree City Obstetrics and Gynecology.

So at this point in time, I am the partner that’s been here the longest because I came in 1992. Dr. Guthrie, what year did you start?

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

’94.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

1994.

Dr. Karen Greene:

And I was in ’96.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

And Dr. Green is in ’96. Just as a bit of a review, we all trained at what was then the Medical College of Georgia residency program in obstetrics and gynecology, and that’s where we connected as friends. And then when it was time to launch out and begin working as a real doctor-

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

The real world world.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

… the real world, we then ended up here at this practice. We celebrated in, I guess if we’re about to do 40 and 23, that would’ve been in ’13, 2013 we did our 30th anniversary party. And so for that party, we wanted to reach out and just give a little bit of history for how the practice began, just so we would know. As some say, “If you don’t know your history, don’t know where you’re going.” So the practice was founded in January, 1984 by Dr. Rose Marie Schultz and her husband Jerry. At that time, the original practice name was Peachtree City Gynecology Center. The original office was located in a blue roof building on Willow Bend Center, or rather within Willow Bend Center, which was on Highway 54 here in Peachtree City. As you would look at these buildings from Highway 54, that office was located to the right of, at that time, AL’S cleaners, that was on the very end of the road. And then there was a post office located on the opposite end of those buildings.

The office size was small in comparison to our current location. There was a small waiting room that was furnished with three wing backed chairs and an antique coat rack. There was a small front office area, a small business office, one small nursing area, two exam rooms. And Dr. Schultz reminded us that at the time she opened, only one of those exam rooms was furnished. And then she had a doctor’s office, a small lunchroom and a bathroom. We’ve come a long way ladies. At the time of the starting of the practice, she had one other employee in addition to her husband who filled in and answered the phone as needed.

Dr. Karen Greene:

I can only imagine. Can you imagine?

Dr. Mironda Williams:

I cannot imagine starting practice that way, but she did. She was a trailblazer in many, many ways. In 1987, the move was then made to the current location where we’re located is 210 Clover Reach here in Peachtree City. In the beginning, only the gynecology side of the building was remodeled and decorated and made very beautiful, as Dr. Schultz would like to say. In 1990, the practice named was changed to Peachtree City Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the name was changed at that time because the decision was made to include obstetrics. When Dr. Schultz started the practice, as she said in 1984, she was one of very few women in the area practicing medicine period or practicing at that time, gynecology. And the area was very sparsely populated. It was probably more cows than people at that time. But as the area began to grow, mainly because of the airline industry at that time, there was an airline, Eastern Airlines that’s no longer around, but it was growing and developing.

Those who are familiar with Atlanta are also familiar, this is the hub for Delta Airlines. So Peachtree City really began to grow and develop because it was like a suburb for the pilots and everyone connected to the airport. So because the area was growing and there was a need for obstetrics to be provided in this area, and for women to have the option of a female obstetrician, she decided to begin obstetrics in her practice. In 1990, Dr. Rebecca Banks joined the practice. Also in 1990, there were renovations made in the building on the other second half of the building that was designated as the OB side. And so even to this day-

Dr. Karen Greene:

It’s the OB side.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

… it’s the OB side, even though we stopped doing OB a long time ago. Again, we’ve already mentioned to you that Dr. Mironda Williams, yours truly, joined the practice in 1992. Dr. Deanna Guthrie joined the practice in 1994. Also in 1994, we originally started doing all of everything at Newnan Hospital. At that time, the original Newnan Hospital was a two story hospital, had a small labor and delivery unit, small operating suite. And so that’s where we did all of our deliveries and our surgeries. But with the addition of obstetrics and the growing of the population, and the growing of our obstetric practice to include a lot of high risk types of OB patients, we began to seek out other areas, other hospitals that could provide a tertiary level of nursery care so that we could care for more high risk patients.

And so we began to deliver at other hospitals. At that time, Georgia Baptist Hospital was where we did some obstetrics. We eventually also did obstetrics at Southern Regional Hospital.

Dr. Karen Greene:

[inaudible 00:07:51].

Dr. Mironda Williams:

… Long Hospital. We did all of that until our local hospital, Piedmont Fayette, now Piedmont Fayette, at the time it was Fayette Community Hospital, but is now known as Piedmont Fayette Hospital started doing obstetrics. So we went around the 285 and our patients followed us thankfully. During that process though, we sold our practice in 1994 to, at that time, Georgia Baptist was in the process of acquiring practices and doing things. And then also in the midst of that, we added Dr. Greene and Dr. Audrey Miller to our practice. And so at one point, we had five physicians, I think three nurse practitioners.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Six.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

… six physicians, yeah, Rose, Becky Schultz-

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Greene, Guthrie-

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Green, Guthrie and Miller. We had six doctors at one point, but we sold the practice. As many of you who may be business owners know who are in medicine, a lot of changes also began to occur during that time with managed care and just various different things. And so the simple practice of hanging out your shingle and saying, I’m in business, come to me-

Dr. Karen Greene:

Does not work.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

… that disappeared. It changed. And so it became very involved. And so there were a lot of us who were looking for assistance in that business part of doing a medical practice and the insurance business, specifically. So we looked at the option of selling to a group at that time, the Premier Practice Management, to help us with that, to help manage that part of the practice. It didn’t last too long. We found that we liked telling ourselves what to do.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Being our own bosses.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

… being our own bosses, more so than having to follow different processes and protocols that were being given to us. So we decided to buy ourselves back. So in April of 2000, we bought ourselves back from that management company. At that time, Dr. Banks, Dr. Williams, Dr. Guthrie, and Dr. Greene along of Dr. Miller, bought the practice back in April of 2000. Well, then Dr. Schultz, our leader, our founder, our muse, our mentor, decided that she was going to semi-retired and move to Florida, which we were all a little shocked about because we were like, you can’t leave this. You started this-

Dr. Karen Greene:

You started this. You can’t leave.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

… you can’t leave us. But she did later in that same year, 2000. So pretty much since 2000, it was five of us and then four of us, and now three of us.

Dr. Karen Greene:

Yep [inaudible 00:10:56].

Dr. Mironda Williams:

The three amigos who are still standing and still moving strong and don’t plan on going anywhere.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Yet.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Yet, not for a long while, ladies, seriously. We will be here for a while. Dr. Greene’s got two man boys that have to be educated still, so she’ll be here.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

And I’ve got to feed myself.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

I’ve got to feed myself and live somewhere.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Yes.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

So we were not going anywhere. So we bought Rose out in 2000 upon her retirement. Our other partner, Dr. Miller, left in 2004. We ended up buying her out. The practice had stopped obstetrics again. So in the beginning there was no obstetrics, and then there was obstetrics, and then there was no obstetrics again.

Dr. Karen Greene:

That’s not coming back.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

It’s not coming.

Dr. Karen Greene:

That’s not coming back. No.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

And so that happened in 2016. And then as we’ve talked about in previous shows, we then went to a four day work week shortly after that, somewhere in 2016, ’17. And then in 2018 is when Dr. Banks also retired. She was the second longest partner at that time and so we bought her out. And again, as I said, it’s been the three of us. Womanning the helm.

Dr. Karen Greene:

Womanning the Helm woman.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Womanning the helm.

Dr. Karen Greene:

Yeah, it’s funny I guess we have. When you wrote all that out the first time, I looked back and was like, wow. It’s been an interesting ride.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

And it’s unusual that practices have stayed-

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Well, the core has really stayed together.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

… this long and people have retired. We had other partners to come in and lead, but the core group, like you said. Had another patient today who said, “There’s so many new people.” I was like, “Well-

Dr. Mironda Williams:

New staff people.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

… new staff people.” And she goes, “You have a lot of turnover.” I said, “It’s turnover.” I said, “but it’s not because people just decide to leave, it was retirement. Everybody had been here 25, 30, long time.”

Dr. Mironda Williams:

And that was a COVID casualty. I think that was part of what a lot of places saw with COVID, is that people had been in their jobs for 15, 20, 25 years, they were like, we out.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

I don’t have to do this anymore.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

I don’t have to do this anymore. And so up until that point, in terms of our staff, we had been blessed with many long tenured staff members. Which again, to Dr. Guthrie’s point, not only have the providers been fairly stable in terms of who’s been here over these last 20, 30 years, our staff members, up until COVID had also been here for many, many, many decades. And so a lot of those long tenured staff members, they were at the point where they could retire, and they opted to do that, which no one could blame them. Because again, it’s fading in memory now, but at the time when all this happened in 2020, we were like, wait, what? What’s going on?

Dr. Karen Greene:

With [inaudible 00:14:09]?

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Not just clothes, medicine.

Dr. Karen Greene:

What do we do now? How do we do it?

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Supply chains, you couldn’t get what you needed. And people were fighting over toilet paper. It was just a lot that was going on. And to do that and try to work, people were concerned about their own health. Again, some of those longer tenured people were older, and so they had health concerns. So that’s understandable. Then as other industries have experienced and continue to experience, then came the revolving door of staff, of people who, again, we’ve talked about this in other episodes, how people view work has changed, how people want to work has changed. We can’t really have a lot of remote workers in what we do.

Dr. Karen Greene:

I wish I could remote work.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

We have some people who can work remotely sometimes, but unfortunately, not unfortunately, fortunately, the nature of what we do is people focused.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

[inaudible 00:15:15].

Dr. Mironda Williams:

So there’s still the hands on of medicine that has to take place between a provider and the patient. And so because of that, we have to be here, and therefore the staff that helps us do what we do has to be here. And so we’ve had, just recently, in the last three to four years, a younger-

Dr. Karen Greene:

Newer.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

… newer staff contingent than what we had been used to for all of our times because we came in the 90s. We’re 90s babies.

Dr. Karen Greene:

Yep.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

We started here in the 90s and so now we are the senior members in a lot of ways because we’ve been here through all these transitions. And so we have to help to guide a lot of our staff members and say, it’s just different. We’re just in different times. And so we do see more newer faces in terms of our staff than we have in decades past just because the workforce has changed, not just for us, but for everybody.

Dr. Karen Greene:

But it’s funny, for patients like the one that came in this morning to see Dr. Guthrie, patients see us probably once a year at best, especially now that we don’t deliver. They come in for their regular visit. Because women don’t change their gynecologist quickly. They will stay with the same gynecologist forever. That’s a blessing for us, but that’s just the nature of the business. So when they come back, they expect to see the same people, even though things have changed in other areas, they know that, well, my gynecologist hasn’t changed, so they expect that everybody else is going to be the same. But we haven’t changed, but some of the staff has changed. And so it’s definitely newer faces. But I think the beauty of one reasons we have stayed together is because we have made the changes that we need to make in these last 20 years.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

About 30 for me.

Dr. Karen Greene:

Yeah.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

And when we talk about an origin story revisit, one of the things that we really want to highlight is our founder, Dr. Rosemary Schultz, who still acts as a guiding light because a lot of the principles that she taught us, as she brought us in and took us under her wing, not just as a phenomenal physician and phenomenal surgeon, but even more so I think every day that passes, I appreciate even more so her business acumen. For her to have created in 1984, a business model and a practice that is still going strong 40 years later-

Dr. Karen Greene:

That’s a big deal.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

… that’s a big deal. And it’s a big deal for anybody, but it’s really a big deal for a woman who started this in 1984 when that was not the norm. It wasn’t even an oddity, it just wasn’t.

Dr. Karen Greene:

Women just didn’t do that.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Women just didn’t do that. And so one of the things that she did when she moved into the structure that we currently occupy, is she said, we need mammogram on site. Who did that in the 80s? It was unthought of for a private practice to have onsite imaging because you just sent people either to the hospital where they needed for imaging, whether that be mammography or ultrasound. So she was one of the first OB/GYN physicians to have in this area, onsite mammography and she had an ultrasound too. That was just visionary. That’s why you have to know your history. We didn’t just start doing mammograms onsite. When I came here, wasn’t a resident anymore, but I was brand new, spanking new, still wet behind the ears. And when I needed to do an ultrasound and it’s like, “Oh, it’s right there.”

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Do I have to wait a week for the results?

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Do I have to wait a week for results? Because as residents, that’s what happened. We didn’t have that or as a mammogram, they didn’t have to be scheduled for a mammogram on another day in another facility, they went right around the hall and got their mammogram. And so as a new physician, it really gave me a sense of confidence, that yes, my history and my physical are integral to what we do, but if I think I’m feeling something, if I think there’s something going on, I say, oh, I can get an imaging study and I can see what’s going on right then while that patient is with me, and then come up with a plan of care. How did you all feel, just if you can think back all those years to being brand new.

Dr. Karen Greene:

I can definitely remember thinking that was normal because I came and that’s where it was. And it wasn’t until talking to other practices, because I think as a newbie, you follow what everyone else is doing and you just fall in line. And luckily, we practice very similarly, so that wasn’t an issue. So for me it was like, well, that’s just normal. And then talking to other practices and realizing it wasn’t normal number one, and I was like, wow, that’s a big deal. Then finding out the history behind it. But more importantly, you become, for me, a busy mom or just a busy woman in general, knowing that for most women, if you tell them to go get a mammogram somewhere else, there is a good chance that’s not going to happen.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Not going to happen.

Dr. Karen Greene:

It’s just not going to happen. And so when Rose decided we were going to care for women, being able to care for women means let’s get it all done in one spot because we don’t want to miss something that could be important later because they decided, well, I got to take Johnny to the doctor, or I’ve got to do this, or I’ve got to work. And as women, we’re just so multitask oriented all the time that we fall at the bottom of that lens. And so for me, I remember the difference in thinking of how I thought about it then, it’s like, Ooh, this is great, to now like, oh, this is necessary. And everything we can do, we got to keep doing this.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Another thing is her design of the office.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

I was about to say that. You just read my mind.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Everybody has made that comment. The way our exam rooms are designed, in most places, you just walk straight into this exam room and there’s a table sitting there, you just get undressed and you just are sitting there.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

You’re all out.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

She designed-

Dr. Mironda Williams:

All out.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

She designed this space where there is a partition in the room where there’s a desk. And now we’re using computers, there wasn’t a computer before it was a chart. But there’s an area to talk to the patient first.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Fully clothed.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Fully clothed, whether you do that before or afterwards, and then the patient can step around in privacy and get undressed. Then depending on how your schedule is running, you may step out to see another patient or whatever. But you can be in the room, but the patient has privacy to get undressed. And then there’s that space again to talk to them afterwards. Again, fully closed. I’ve heard lots of comments on that.

Dr. Karen Greene:

[inaudible 00:22:46].

Dr. Mironda Williams:

And I appreciate that. And it’s always been that way. And again, she opened this in January of 1984 and this building design, we moved to this, she moved, we moved to this building. I was just thinking about medical school in ’87. No, I was about to get out of medical school in ’87, but she moved into the site where we are now. Remember, she was one physician, bought these buildings. There are actually two buildings where our podcast studio is located, we call that the hill. This is where all of the business functions basically take place. So we have our business office up here. We have a meeting area up here, so that this is what we consider a nonclinical area for meetings and different things. But she bought this area 40 years ago. The structure that we see patients in, the main building, that building was designed … this is the visionary part of Rose Schultz … as a solo practitioner, she bought and constructed a 12,000 square foot business for one person. And designed it to house many providers.

As we said in the introduction, we had a GYN side and we had an OB side because when we were doing obstetrics, we had OB patients that would go on one side and GYNs would go on the other. And she told me that the reason she did it that way is because … and I’m sure she would share this when we get her to give her insights in terms of starting the practice and then handing the baton to us … she started as a gynecology only physician, that’s number one. Number two, because of personal situations, she never had natural children. And so she said that she was always sensitive to the fact that there are many women who come to her at that time, who either never had children, never wanted children. So having to sit in a waiting area where there were people who were coming in various stages of pregnancy could be uncomfortable. And the fact that she recognized that and created a space so that everyone could feel comfortable in whatever their truth was, whatever their lived experience was.

And so if I didn’t want to look at a pregnant belly because it made me think that my belly would never be pregnant, I could sit on this side, beautifully appointed waiting area, or if I’m coming here with my pregnant belly in various stages of pregnancy, I could wait on the other side of the building, beautifully appointed. At that time, she had this, it was an awning, but it was an awning that looked like a circus tent with multiple colors. Because again, she was sensitive to the needs of women in all stages of their lives as they were coming to see their gynecologist, their OB/GYN physician. And if there were kids with the mom waiting or the family waiting, that area was designed and furnished in a way that made that happen and made it a very natural process, you didn’t feel othered. In our previous episodes and seasons, we’ve talked about how we have been made the other and what it feels like to be the other and how that can make you feel less than.

In 1984, Rosemary Schultz designed a practice and a building structure to support this vision that has continued to evolve to weather all the storms that we have faced, external storms, and some internal storms, we have weathered. She created a space, a physical space, as well as an emotional, philosophical space that allow women to care for women. The tagline of this practice when she started was woman-to-woman. And that’s what this practice has continued to represent for 40 years and counting, is that we have a space that she created out of her vision, out of her grit, out of her New York, Dr. Greene, her New York grit, to say women will be cared for by women in a way that is uplifting, in a way that’s affirming, in a way that’s empowering.

It just blows my mind. So as the three of her little chicklings who remain to carry on her philosophy of caring for women, making changes as bosses. As she would tell us all the time, friends is friends-

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

But business is business.

Dr. Karen Greene:

But business is business.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

… but business is business is what she was saying. Friends is friends, but business is business. And so we have continued in that vein and will continue in that vein even as you hear about all the wonderful things that are transpiring for this practice that she started. So we wanted to take some time to give just a revisit of our origin story 2000. Since in the year 2000 Rose past the baton to us, though we did not want it at the time. She handed the baton off and she said to me, “Because I knew you guys had it, this has always been your practice, I just started it for you.” So because of that, Rose, we thank you and we encourage women of all reproductive ages, teenagers on up, to consider us whenever you or your family or friends are looking for caring, competent, conscious, OB/GYN physicians who are here as women taking care of women. So thank you for sticking with us, yay, these 30 plus years for the three of us, and 40 years for the practice.

Thank you. We thank you for your support and we thank you for your confidence in us as your providers. Anything else before we close out?

Dr. Karen Greene:

[inaudible 00:30:08].

Dr. Mironda Williams:

On that note, once again, I’m Dr. Mironda Williams.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

I’m Dr. Deanna Guthrie.

Dr. Karen Greene:

And I am Dr. Karen Greene. Take Good Care.