NOTE: This message was emailed to Ballad Health team members on Monday, March 30, from Alan Levine, chairman and CEO of Ballad Health.
Dear Ballad Health Medical Staff and team members,
Some of the most important work in healthcare happens in moments most people will never see. The late night phone call. The quiet advice given to a struggling patient. The critical thinking a physician does while speaking with a patient – where the patient is simply having a conversation, but the doctor is assessing what could be a complex diagnosis. The quiet judgment of a surgeon in the middle of a procedure. All of these things happen 24-7, and most people never truly get to see it.
For many of us, we do, however, get the privilege of seeing some of the results of this work. As physicians across our region quietly do what needs to be done, we get to participate in the victories and the losses.
For instance, earlier this year, during severe winter weather, a 3-month-old trauma patient arrived at Smyth County Community Hospital. Flights were grounded. Conditions were worsening. In minutes, our innovative Clinical Command Center brought the pediatric expertise of Ballad Health Niswonger Children’s Network Chief Medical Officer Dr. Seth Brown to the bedside. Through secure video, Dr. Brown stood virtually beside Dr. Robert Clampitt, guiding a delicate intubation from another state, an hour away. Thanks to the creative collaboration of our teams, the child was stabilized for transport and received the necessary care. That is our mission in action.
Today, we recognize physicians across our region, marking a tradition that began in 1933 in Winder, Georgia, in honor of Dr. Crawford W. Long’s first use of anesthesia. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush officially designated March 30 as National Doctors’ Day, calling on our nation to recognize the contributions of physicians. This history reflects the essence of medicine: the courage to innovate and the commitment to ease suffering and improve lives.
That same spirit lives at Ballad Health today. When Dr. Alessandra Cathel performed Johnson City Medical Center’s first awake craniotomy in December 2025, she, alongside her anesthesiology colleagues, allowed a patient to receive world-class treatment close to home, surrounded by their support network. It shows what’s possible when new approaches and strong teams come together around a patient.
Even at those times when we begin to doubt, we find solutions through the sheer determination of our teams. When a patient and former team member arrived at Franklin Woods Community Hospital, unresponsive and suffering from a heart attack, the team tried everything – chest compressions, defibrillation, medication. Emergency medicine physician Dr. Brian Dawson, as unfortunately happens from time to time, was beginning to contemplate speaking with the family, to give them what could be bad news. But, because of the culture of his team and his confidence in them, his team didn’t give up and, after 30 minutes of responding to the code, the patient’s heart started beating again. That patient was stabilized, treated at Johnson City Medical Center, and a few weeks ago, the patient’s family texted Dr. Dawson a video of the patient hiking – a living testament to the persistence and faith of our doctors, one of our guiding values of Ballad Health.
Our physicians continue to show up, despite facing staffing shortages, greater patient complexity and financial pressures. And behind every life saved and every complication avoided is a simple, shared mindset: “We’re going to take care of this patient like they’re one of our own.”
On this Doctors’ Day today, I invite each of us to pause and say “thank you,” to write a note, make a call or simply offer a word of appreciation.
To every physician across Ballad Health and throughout our region: Thank you. Thank you for the nights you traded for a patient’s safety, the courage you summon when the path isn’t clear, the humility to collaborate and the relentless insistence that a better outcome is possible.
With respect and gratitude,
Alan
