On this episode of the Take Good Care podcast, Drs. Williams, Guthrie, and Greene continue the discussion on going from chaos to calm. They specifically discuss their workplace, “what” their business is, and more.
Transcript
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.
Group:
Welcome to our show.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Welcome to this episode of Take Good Care podcast. I’m Dr. Mironda Williams.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I’m Dr. Deanna Guthrie.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And I’m Dr. Karen Greene.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
For those of you who’ve been following us with this season, season seven of our podcast, we’ve been having continuing conversations and thoughts about the whole concept of trying to go from chaos to calm. This grew out of our appearance on the Porsche show that happened during the fall of last year, which is 2024. Today, we’re going to continue along that same vein and with our previous shows, as we’ve talked about, we broke down the concept of thinking, the transition from chaos to calm. We looked at it in reference to your workplace, to your home life, and then also just for your social life. We’ve had some other conversations looking at some different areas, but today, we really wanted to think about our workplace and specifically, our profession.
We celebrated a huge milestone in 2024, and that was our anniversary, our 40th anniversary of our practice being in existence. As we are transitioning now, we changed our name. We were Peachtree City OB/GYN. We’re now Rosa Gynecology. We really wanted to take some time to think about, well, who is this business or what is this business? Just like we ask ourselves individually who we are, what do we believe, and are the actions that we’re taking currently support those things, we really feel like it’s a good time for us to just hit a reset button as it relates to our practice. So much of where we spend our time is at work. Let’s think about what is this practice? What should this practice be or who do we think this practice is? Then, what does this practice believe? Anybody want to start with who they think the practice, had their answer or their thoughts behind who or what is Rosa Gynecology?
Dr. Karen Greene:
Go ahead.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
All right. I said we are a women-led venture that offers women of all walks of life comprehensive gynecological care.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Okay, say that again and speak up.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Okay. We are a women-led venture that offers women of all walks of life comprehensive gynecological care.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Talk about that a little bit more. How’d you come up with that?
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Well, number one, we’re three female physicians that are owners and business partners in this practice, so very important in this day and time of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I know, I just said a bad word, I’m sorry, but just to put focus on that.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
We’ve always been.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Yeah, we’ve always been, yes. It’s women-owned, women led, and that puts, I think, a certain emphasis. It makes us probably behave and come to decisions differently than say other businesses or other corporations, I feel.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
In what way? How do you think we do that?
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Well, I mean, being women serving women, I think we have the unique perspective for women and we understand more what a woman goes through. I think that …
Dr. Mironda Williams:
No, I agree with you. The only reason why I ask those questions is since we mentioned those letters, there’s some thinking now that those concepts of what those letters stand for is no longer needed or it’s not necessary or never was needed and never was necessary. I think it’s good to really explain again that it’s no shade against men or however you identify. It’s just that because we are female and women, we understand period issues. We understand menopausal issues, we understand things that come along with just trying to juggle life as a woman who’s trying to do so many things, and it’s just different. It’s just like, I don’t claim to understand men, God knows, but I digress, but we try and we do the best we can, but that’s why it takes all of us to make this world go around. Go ahead, Deanna. Anything else you want to say about who you think or what you think Rosas is at this point?
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Well, just that we are here for the community and for all women from teenage years until well past or well into menopause, eighties, nineties, I even have patients in nineties and that we’re here to serve the community.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
What did you have, Karen?
Dr. Karen Greene:
She had such a nice concise definition, and I kind of went into, okay, Rosa Gynecology and when I thought about it, I remembered how long it took us to change our name.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Remind the people quickly what we did a little over half a year ago.
Dr. Karen Greene:
We went from Peachtree City Obstetrics and Gynecology, and many, many times people had said, “Well, you’re no longer obstetrics. Why don’t you change your name?” No, no, no, we’re not going to do that. The more we thought about it, Peachtree City Obstetrics and Gynecology, I’ve been saying for almost 30 years, and it’s easy, but it’s a mouthful and so changing to something shorter made sense. What the shorter would be, that was a little bit of a challenge. We had to get something that spoke to us. When we arose at this name of Rosa Gynecology, I think that it was not without really thinking, okay, is this going to work? Is this for us? I remember when our accountant said, “It’s a nod to the past, looking forward to the future,” that really filled my heart. That really did, because I think one of the reasons it was so hard to let go of that name was because of everything it really stood for. It stood for caring, compassionate physicians who are about the business, about the business of doing work, but we really wanted our patients to be taking care of well.
There were many times where even in obstetrics, that patients would come to us because another doctor didn’t see them or didn’t listen to them, or God forbid, didn’t want to care for them because of their size. That happened more often than not. It makes you sad as a woman. I do think, harkening back to what Dr. Guthrie said, that we understand things that some people are not going to understand. And so we represent and we have to represent because it’s in us. And that has always been a part of our nature and a part of our gynecological DNA. I mean, we didn’t come to this by accident. When Rose chose us, she knew the people she was choosing were going to be like her in that sense that we really, not only enjoy what we do, but we care about what we do.
That, to me, is what Rosa Gynecology means, but also in looking to, okay, what’s the next chapter? What do other people need to feel communicated to, like this podcast? Seeing that we’re relatable, seeing that we go through the same things that they go through, the same challenges. We can chuckle at ourselves about some of the things that we’ve done. To me, that’s what I guess I was thinking of in terms of, this is what Rosa Gynecology is.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Yep. I agree with all that. Before I go any further, it is time for me to press the magic button because for those of you who are on our YouTube and are on our website, you need to know that we are live and on the air. Now, my light is on. To summarize a little bit, and I’ll tell you what my definition or how I characterize who or what Rosa Gynecology is, but again, just to bring up and what the other ladies have talked about, and I was thinking about this just the other day. At the time of this recording, in a year, almost a year from now, we will celebrate, and I do mean celebrate, no longer practicing obstetrics.
When I say that it’s not because the practice of obstetrics was not something that was in our heart and is a part of who we are still, even though we don’t physically deliver babies anymore, it is still so much of who we started in this practice as, but not necessarily who we will continue to be in this practice. We will celebrate in almost a year from now, a 10-year anniversary of letting go of obstetrics and gynecology, or obstetrics, I’m sorry, but Peachtree City OB/GYN and the obstetrics part of that. I really think that as I thought about our transition from Peachtree City OB/GYN to now being known as Rosa Gynecology, I think that’s when that evolution began. I think that’s when we started to begin to reshape our personality as individual practitioners, but also as an entity, as a business. That’s huge.
It’s huge in a number of ways because one thing I have discovered as an individual, but also as a business, we have to know who we are and define ourselves. If we don’t know who we are and define ourselves, there are many people out there who will do it for you. There are many entities out there who may also try to ascribe what your next move is for various reasons.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Put us in a box.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Put us in a box.
Dr. Karen Greene:
No.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Don’t put us in a box. I’m going to steal from our mentor and our coach, the woman who really started this off in January of 1984 when we had a show with her last year getting ready for our fourth anniversary. What she said is what I coined as to summarize everything that my partners have already said, and really to explain how Peachtree City OB/GYN has evolved, is that who and what we are is a place where women can thrive. It’s a place where women can thrive as owners, as leaders, as physicians, as staff, as patients. This is a place where women can thrive. In our current iteration as a gynecology-only practice, we’ve been able to really sharpen and hone our focus on the gynecological care of patients while the obstetrical side is something that we no longer participate in, but because we have had such a longevity in this community in particular, but also just as practicing positions, because all of us now, well, I’m over 30 years of practice, but everybody else is … What are you, Deanna?
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
31 in July.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
What are you, Karen?
Dr. Karen Greene:
29.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
29.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
She’s almost 30. We’ve said it. We’ve said it time and time again because when we decided to change our practice name, there was conversations in the community that they’re selling or they’re leaving, all kinds of things. We really want to settle, people, that Rosa Gynecology and the owners of this business, myself, Deanna Guthrie and Karen Green, we ain’t going nowhere. There are some people who may want us to, but it’s not happening. I want to be real clear on that. We evolve and we change, and I think we become better at doing what is needed now.
Dr. Karen Greene:
I think it goes back to you saying what people like to decide for you, who you are. Whenever we make a change, people, it’s almost as if they’re, well, they must be doing this and they must be doing this and they must be doing this. No, no, we’re just evolving.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
We’re evolving. We’re evolving.
Dr. Karen Greene:
We’re looking to the future, and we’re making decisions based on sound information research, and we don’t come by anything without a lot of thought. I think back to even procedures that we looked at in the past that we went back and forth. Should we? Yeah, the evidence is there. It would be a good idea to do it. Now looking back on it, it’s like, I’m glad we did it. We waited, we thought about it. We’re not going to jump on something just willy-nilly because everybody else is doing it.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
It’s the current trend.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
It’s not being reactionary.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
No.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
It’s being very thoughtful.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Exactly. As we move more into the conversation about or understanding, I think, with that foundation of who we think Rosa is now or what we think Rosa Gynecology is now, did you ladies think a little bit about what do we believe as a corporate entity, as a business?
Dr. Karen Greene:
I think we believe that we can be good business owners. We can have a good business and still be caring physicians. Those two do not have to be separate. We can run the business and think about what’s good for the business as well as what’s good for the patients. Similarly, when we were delivering babies and we were all over the place setting standards in how we wanted our office to run so that there wasn’t that chaotic feeling in our office transitioned over to when we started doing procedures in the office as opposed to having pregnant ladies walking around the office, thinking about that, thinking about coming in and having that feeling of calm. I was a business decision, but it also reflects how our patients enjoy feeling when they come into this place that, “I always like it when I come here,” and people do say that. I think that really is a reflection that we’re caring physicians.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Anything else in your other thoughts about what we believe as an entity, as a business, as a corporation, either of you?
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I have a few. I put, Rose Gynecology believes every woman should have a place to be heard.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Deanna, I think you’re saying some really good things and I just really want you to just take your time because I think this is important. The only reason why I’m saying that is, we care so much about what we do as a business and we care so much about our staff and our patients, but we don’t always get the time to always get the opportunity or the time to say it. I think this is a really good opportunity to really just try to say what we believe as a business.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Okay. Okay. Rosa Gynecology believes that every woman should have a place to be heard. Every woman deserves respect. Every woman deserves quality healthcare, and every woman should be a full participant in her healthcare.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Absolutely. You want to say anything more about why you said that? What informed that?
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Well, like you said, as Dr. Green was just saying that in all our years of serving the community and our patient population, that we do care. We do care a lot. I find for me, and I can’t speak for you two, that when I transitioned to GYN only, I’m getting more time to develop that practice of being able to listen more, listen better, spend more time, and pay attention to my patients. I just had a patient the other day who said, “I just love coming here. This is my most favorite appointment,” and we sit and talk. She goes, “We don’t even talk about my health most of the time. We talk about something else,” and that warms my heart.
We do take care of the business of taking care of a woman’s health. Like Dr. Green even said earlier, there are a lot of patients who go to places where they don’t get to speak up. They don’t get to speak for themselves, they don’t get to advocate for themselves. We want to be that place where a woman knows that she can come and we will listen. We will hear her. Like I said, I fully believe that every woman should be a full participant in her healthcare.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Absolutely. Again, for those of you who may just be picking us up at this point in the conversation, just a reminder that this is Take Good Care podcast. It was born out of Peachtree City Obstetrics Gynecology, now Rosa Gynecology. I’m Dr. Mironda Williams.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I’m Dr. Deanna Guthrie.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And I’m Dr. Karen Greene.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
What we’re doing with this episode is really trying to take some time right now as we feel as individuals and as a business, we’re evolving and transitioning to the next leg of the journey that we have going forward professionally and we wanted to take an opportunity to really give ourselves time to really think about who we want to be, who we are as a business. As a function of that, each of us took time individually to think about who or what Rosa Gynecology is, and then to also think about and articulate what we believe. I also wrote out some things. Here’s some things that I have listed for what I think we believe as a business, what Rosa Gynecology believes. We believe in clear communication and by clear communication, that includes communication with and between staff members, with and between all the providers in this business as well as with and between the owners of this practice. Again, we three own this practice. I just had to pause right there.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Just in case there was any question.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Well, we don’t celebrate ourselves enough.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Well, that’s true. That is true.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
I don’t think we give ourselves credit for owning a business that currently has 19 employees, but in our various stages over the last 30 plus years, we’ve had as many as-
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
40.
Dr. Karen Greene:
40.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
40 employees. All women.
Dr. Karen Greene:
We do do what we do and you’re right, it’s good to sit back. It is. It is because what people see is us as owners.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
No, they see us as doctors.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Well, that’s true, but they also-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
I don’t think, they don’t assume that you’re the owner of the practice.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Well, that’s true.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
They just think you work here.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Well, only because we had a podcast where we had guests on the outside and she said, “It’s just so nice to see y’all as owning this practice,” and when she said that, it kind of made me realize, well, yeah, this is my practice. I own it with these two wonderful women over here. Yes, we need to celebrate and pause at that statement.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Yes, so we believe in clear communication. We believe in collaborative leadership. There’s no queen, there’s no head honcho. We believe in collaborative leadership. We believe in patient empowerment. We believe in patient education. We believe in a culture of safety. I also borrowed this from Piedmont Healthcare System because years and years and years back, there was a whole shift in a move in healthcare system that talked about a culture of safety, meaning everyone in the corporate entity is empowered to speak up. If there is an issue, if you see a problem or concern, or even if it’s a great thing, a good thing, everyone from the person that’s picking up the trash and changing the linen to the CEO of the hospital, everyone is empowered to speak up, to say what needs to be said. If there is an issue, if there’s a problem, then you speak up and then it’s like the whole chain stops until we address whatever that issue is so that we keep patients safe.
We believe in a culture of safety in this practice. We believe in healthy eating, healthy movement, and healthy relationships. We believe in policies and procedures that are based on best practices. That’s best practices for clinical work. Excuse me. It’s fake spring in Atlanta, and I’ve got allergies. I’m going to say that again. We believe in policies and procedures that are based on the best practices, both for clinical work, for taking care of our patients, and for the administrative work, the running of the business. We believe in work-life harmony or balance. I think what really feeds all of this is that we believe in home and family.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Yes.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Because of these beliefs, it helps to inform what we do, decisions we make and how we go about our day in and day in life. Y’all got any other thoughts about that or any other conversations about who we are as a business and what we believe as a business?
Dr. Karen Greene:
I thought some of the same things about the safe space because I think it is so important for when we say we want patients to speak up and be a part of their care, we really mean that because they’re the one having the procedure. They’re the one having the exam. If there’s a concern, if there’s something they need us to know, I want to hear that because it’s a way that we can see you because not everybody’s the same. Everyone comes from different walks of life and has different issues going on and different stressors. Sometimes, when we’re listening, I believe that we listen. I think listening is so important because it tells us a lot of not only what’s going on, but who that person is.
The conversation you might have with your patient about what’s been going on for the last year may be more important than that pelvic exam. You can still do the pelvic exam and have that conversation, but the reason that our patients love coming here because the GYN exam is not something most women want to do, but do love coming here because we listen. I think that is so important in providing that safe atmosphere, that that little room is their own little time where they can have a conversation about what’s going on, what they need to do, what we recommend, and what’s best for them in terms of a lot of the things that Dr. Williams mentioned, healthy eating, healthy movement, home life harmony and balance, that our family is important. Our work is important and our staff should know that as well, because that’s important for them as well.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Our patients are not just a pelvis, they are a whole person and we want to address the whole person.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Absolutely. Thank you all for listening and for staying on this journey with us, especially in this particular season that we’re in now, season seven where we’re just taking an opportunity to really look back over the last 40 years of this corporation and also to look forward to the next 10-ish, whatever, going forward for this corporation and this business and to make sure that we are checking in. I think that’s something we advocate for our patients to do and for our staff and our leadership team to do. It’s important for us as the owners of this business and the women who have to set the vision for this business to also check in, to make sure that where we are now in our lives, both personally and professionally, is supported by this business.
Just like we’ve talked in previous episodes that our home lives, we’ve tried to structure our home life to be supportive of who we are, to Dr. Guthrie’s point, all of us, the whole woman, not just what I do for work and how we have tried to say how important it is to check in to make sure that your social life, the things that you do for fun or when you’re trying to figure out what you do for fun, that that’s important. We really hope that we are trying to model for our audience and for our patients the need to just stop, reflect, check in, articulate it, write it down, come up with words.
We talked about, excuse me, with the previous episode about giving a name to things. When you can name it or articulate it, it helps you to decide, is it good like it is? Do I need to make a change or do I need to figure something else out or seek otherwise counsel? If you’re not checking in, if we’re just busy being busy, then sometimes life can get away from you. Any other thoughts, ladies, before we wrap up for this episode? Looking at who Rosa Gynecology is and what Rosa Gynecology believes? Anything else on those areas you want to chime in?
Dr. Karen Greene:
I was just thinking that hopefully by the time we finish our series From Chaos to Calm, some of us will know what we do for fun.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
I’m banking, roller skating is going to be my new thing.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Okay.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Assuming I don’t break anything.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Nope. We are not even talking that.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Thank you. Assuming I don’t break anything, I think I’m going to like getting on them skates. That’s what I think. Thank you all for listening to this episode of Take Good Care podcast. Please continue to share us with your friends and family. You can always find this episode in previous episodes that we’ve done on our previous seasons on our website at rosagynecology.com or on our YouTube channel. Again, share us with your friends and family wherever you get your podcasts. Until we meet again, I’m Dr. Mironda Williams.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I’m Dr. Deanna Guthrie.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And I’m Dr. Karen Greene. Take good care.