Transcription:

Deborah Howell (Host): Over the past 15 years, Tri-State Perinatology has slowly but surely become the largest non-academic maternal-fetal medicine practice in the state of Indiana. Let's learn more about how Tri-State Perinatology came to be. I'm Deborah Howell. And our guest today is Dr. Brennan Fitzpatrick, a board-certified maternal-fetal medicine physician at Tri-State Perinatology. Welcome, Dr. Fitzpatrick.

Dr. Brennan Fitzpatrick: Thanks a lot, Deborah. I appreciate you guys having me.

Host: So nice to have you on today. Can we start at the beginning, just what is Tri-State Perinatology?

Dr. Brennan Fitzpatrick: Tri-State Perinatology is a full service perinatology program that delivers high quality and innovative high-risk obstetrical care to mothers and mothers-to-be in the Tri-State region.

Host: Great. And what does an MFM do?

Dr. Brennan Fitzpatrick: So, MFM is short for maternal-fetal medicine specialist. And a maternal-fetal medicine specialist specializes in high-risk obstetrics. And so, I generally will tell people that we kind of focus in three specific areas. We focus on something called prenatal diagnosis, which is sort of evaluating via ultrasound babies that may have abnormalities. We also work with moms who have underlying medical disorders like diabetes and chronic hypertension, autoimmune disorders. And then, the last part of what we do is really deal with obstetrical complications that may occur during pregnancy. Patients may develop things like preeclampsia, may develop issues with preterm labor, premature rupture of the membranes, those types of things that we ultimately have to manage throughout the course of pregnancy.

Host: And how and when did you come to the women's hospital?

Dr. Brennan Fitzpatrick: I came here in 2008. My wife is from Henderson, Kentucky. She's a gastroenterologist. And she decided that she wanted to come and work with her father. So, I started evaluating opportunities here in Evansville and met with Chris Ryan, who's the CEO of the Women's Hospital, and had a great meeting with her. And I often tell the story of when we first met, and I asked her, "What does she want to do?" And she sort of turned the question around on me and said, you know, "What is it that you want to do?" At that point, I really knew that she was going to give me the opportunity to sort of build what I felt like I was capable of building.

Host: Incredible opportunity. I do have to ask if you don't mind, how in the world did you go from being a theater major to a highly specialized MFM?

Dr. Brennan Fitzpatrick: I wised up. I think that that's probably the bottom line there. You know, I grew up with medicine in my family. It was always on my radar. I loved, and to this day, I love everything about the theater. It's a special thing for me. And I loved having the opportunity to do it. To be honest, there's a ton of skills in terms of observing patients and clueing in to subtext and those types of things that I carry with me to this day. So, it was a wonderful experience, but certainly very happy where I am now.

Host: You spoke to this a little bit earlier, but I'm going to ask again just in case you want to add to it, why the Women's Hospital and why Evansville?

Dr. Brennan Fitzpatrick: You know, having 15 years of history with this organization, and Deaconess Health System in general, there's so few places like this in the country that give you the opportunity to contribute in ways that you may not have that same opportunity in other places. And Chris is a visionary leader. I think, from Linda White when I first came to Shawn McCoy now, the leadership is fantastic. And there were a lot of things that were attractive about this opportunity. So, you know, I think in the grand scheme of things, it was really just too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Host: And you had a vision and they wanted to help you see it fulfilled. How does one start a highly specialized service?

Dr. Brennan Fitzpatrick: You know, I think the key thing you have to do from the outset is sort of assess the market and understand, is the opportunity really there? You know, I think that you look at patient volumes, you look at the resources that a system has, you just can't kind of go in and start doing what you do without really understanding what the demand is.

When I came here, we had a really strong general OB-GYN practice in Women's Healthcare, P.C., that was part of this hospital. We had other really excellent providers throughout the community. And so from that perspective, there was a need. There really wasn't a strong MFM program here, but the volume was such that, you know, I felt like that there was really an opportunity. And as I said before, the leadership really was committed to sort of building and ultimately growing the program.

Host: And you created it right out of your fellowship at Duke this vision you had. Fifteen years later, you have the largest non-academic maternal-fetal medicine practice in the state of Indiana. Congratulations.

Dr. Brennan Fitzpatrick: Thank you. The ability to come out of fellowship to sort of do the things that, you know, we wanted to do and accomplish the things that we wanted to accomplish, I think, I'm really the product of, you know, amazing mentorship. I had the opportunity to do some additional education. I got an MBA when I was at Duke, and that was supported by my program. And then, the MBA and the fellowship really was able to build a network of folks that were really helpful in terms of giving me the guidance that I needed to sort of move forward. And I think the reality is none of this, none of this would be here without-- I mean, there's been so many people that have been critical to sort of growing this thing. So, you know, I think anybody that would singularly take credit for what is here now, I think that that would be a reach. I mean, you know, the reality is I've been surrounded from the very beginning with just amazing people, who have been absolutely committed to delivering the highest quality of care. And we say a lot of times that it's not about checking a box here. It's about actually doing the things that we do on a daily basis and doing them at the highest level that we can, and that's a part of the culture that's here and there's no way that we would ever be where we are now without the contributions of so many people.

Host: It sounds like a beautiful, beautiful team. And what services did you add while you were building this practice?

Dr. Brennan Fitzpatrick: Well, I think the standard kind of MFM program has some of the things that we talked about earlier. But, you know, you also add in genetic counseling. We have an amazing group of genetic counselors that we brought in that wasn't here before. We've grown and developed a really strong diabetes program that wasn't here before. You know, I think the thing and, again, speaking to the contributions of so many people, we've been sort of the origination point for a lot of other things that have developed over time, including our transport program, which has been fantastic. I think that within the state of Indiana, we really do a great job of maternal and neonatal transport. And I say within the state of Indiana, we do transports from Illinois and Kentucky as well. But I think that that program has been a huge thing for us. I think the other thing has been great, is that Chris and her leadership team have committed a lot of resources to developing education programs for the facilities in our region, developing simulation programs for the facilities in our region. And I think that that certainly has come about in concert with sort of the growth and development of our perinatology program.

The other things that we're really proud of, we've worked to develop what we call our perinatal safety committee, which is focused on issues of substance use and mental health. And I think that the goal of that committee and that group was to identify resources within the community that we could theoretically pull together and improve care for our patients that are struggling with those specific issues.

Host: Great, great. And TSP is now celebrating 15 years in 2023, if you can believe it. What has contributed in your opinion to its growth and its longevity?

Dr. Brennan Fitzpatrick: Like I said multiple times today, it's having a great team. But I think we've worked really hard to build relationships with our referring providers, with our patients, communicate with our referring providers. I mean, if they have a question, we have a cell phone that we carry with us 24/7, that they can reach out and they don't have to send patients to us. It's about, you know, if they have a question in the middle of the night, I can't tell you how many times over the course of my career here where somebody just needs that support to say, "Hey, what you're doing is the right thing. Keep doing what you're doing." But it's about, we all feel, myself, Dr. Kuper, Dr. Contreras, Dr. Staat, all feel like we're just sort of work together with all of the physician and provider groups in the area and that were a part of their team. I think building those relationships has been so important over the course of my career in terms of fueling the growth that we've had.

Host: Yeah. And the success as well. TSP now has four MFMs and over 30 employees. What does the future look like there?

Dr. Brennan Fitzpatrick: I think obviously the future is exceptionally bright. I think, you know, we've done a lot of wonderful things. But we're still growing. We're all still learning different ways that we can impact the community and the care of patients in this community. So, we've got a number of things on the table that I think are going to improve access to care for many patients in the past that may have not had that access. We're really working hard to continue to meet the needs of the community. And I think as long as we put patient care first, that we're going to continue to be successful.

Host: Bravo. This is such good information. Is there anything else you wanted to add, Dr. Fitzpatrick?

Dr. Brennan Fitzpatrick: We're so proud of what we've accomplished here and, like I said, it's been a team effort from day one. And without that team, we wouldn't be here. So, I'm grateful to them and certainly grateful to the patients that have trusted us with their care over the course of the last 15 years.

Host: Well, thank you so much for being with us today. And best wishes to everyone at Tri-State Perinatology for all the good work you do every single day.

Dr. Brennan Fitzpatrick: Thanks so much, Deborah. I appreciate it.

Host: And that wraps up this episode of the podcast series from Deaconess, the Women's Hospital, a place for all your life. For more information about Tri-State Perinatology at the Women's hospital, visit deaconess.com/thewomenhospital/services/pregnancycare/highriskpregnancy or call 812-842-4550.

Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast in all the other Deaconess Women Hospital podcasts. For more health tips and updates, please follow us on your social channels. I'm Deborah Howell. Thank you for listening and have yourself a terrific day.