Physician comes home, establishes PM&R practice in Demopolis

Dr. Gina Phillips has proven the author wrong; you can go home again.

The Demopolis native is setting up to practice her medical specialty back in her hometown, 36 years after she left to study medicine.

Since leaving home, Phillips has lived all over the country, studying and practicing Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R).

“When you work long hours like I do, there is very little opportunity to make friends,” she said. On a weekend visit to see family, her focus changed.

“It was nice to be at home,” she said. She even ran into classmates from Demopolis Academy who remembered her well. She asked herself, “Why am I anywhere else?”

Since her son, Taylor Gilliland, now is on his own and working in North Dakota, Phillips decided a move back to Demopolis could be done.

A friend introduced her to Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital administrator Mike Marshall. “Within a few weeks it was a done deal, and I couldn’t be happier,” said Phillips.

The red tape to open a practice, however, has kept her from seeing her first patients. Phillips can’t start until Blue Cross Blue Shield approves her credentials. Even though she has practiced in Alabama for years, she must be issued new credentials when she changes the place where she practices.

Another of the hitches is getting the software needed for her to give the best diagnostic care she can. “We’re wanting to start it correctly,” she explained.

Everything is going digital, including MRIs, x-rays and all the other medical records needed, but such equipment is very expensive and takes time to set up.

The suite of offices in the Outpatient Center of the hospital that she will occupy is being prepared. Boxes are stacked in the hall, a television for the waiting room waits to be installed.

Interviews for staff are ongoing, and the first hires have been made. Diane Lewis is Phillips’ Registered Nurse, and Ivy Lowe will be the office manager.

Because of her medical PM&R specialty, Phillips calls herself a “superdoc.” As a rehabilitation specialist, she evaluates patients and decides what they need to enhance and restore what they can do after traumatic injury to the muscles, bones, tissues and nervous system.

Acting as a conductor, she orchestrates all the care provided by physical, occupational and speech therapists and other specialists, as well as determining which drugs may improve a patient’s quality of life.

There aren’t a lot of PM&R specialists, but the demand for them is growing. Phillips is hoping that she can provide a service that will draw patients to Demopolis to use the hospital and take advantage of what the city has to offer.

“I’m all about growing my community,” she said. “If I can be a part of that, it would really excite me.”

To help grow her practice, she has spent the last two months in an active marketing campaign, introducing herself to doctors throughout the region.

Phillips was surprised that so many of the physicians she spoke with knew what her specialty involves. Her conversations became “more education about what I do” and how close the hospital is for their patients’ care.

Phillips isn’t limiting her practice to PM&R, however. She is one of the leading specialists in the use of Botox injections to manage migraine headaches, upper limb spasticity and cervical dystonia.

Botox also is known for its cosmetic properties in eliminating facial wrinkles. Phillips is considering the addition of cosmetic procedures to her practice as well.

With new surgeon Dr. Keith Roberts, who will share her suite of offices, she will be trained in radio frequency vein ablation for varicose veins. Among other procedures she will conduct are EMGs, nerve inductions, which are electrical tests to diagnose nerve damage.

Yet another aspect of her practice will be a post-menopausal osteoporosis program. She has dubbed it BoBB, or Back-to-Bone Basics.

Phillips even envisions conducting a competition to design a cartoon character of BoBB as a way to market the program.

All of these procedures reflect the care Phillips wants to give her patients.

“The kind of doctor I want to be is someone you can talk to and when you calk away, whether I helped you or not, I want you to feel like I cared for you.”