Providing Quality Health Care

OUTdrive Episode 95 with Dr. Stuart Braverman

Access to quality health care is at the core of a healthy community. Rural area hospitals play a vital role in attracting new families and businesses to small and mid-size cities. Sedalia, Missouri is home to a number of care facilities, including the community-owned Bothwell Regional Health Center. In this episode of OUTdrive, I sit down with Dr. Stuart Braverman to discuss the ins and outs, challenges, and rewards of being a health care provider in rural America.

Stu is a general surgeon in private practice and is the Chief of Staff at Bothwell Regional Health Center in Sedalia, Missouri. He has been practicing medicine for over 20 years. Stu received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri before going on to Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts. Tufts consistently ranks among the world’s best medical research institutions for clinical medicine year after year. Stu then completed his residency for general surgery at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia before making his way back to Sedalia. In his free time, Stu enjoys golfing and spending time with family on weekends at their cabin on the Lake of the Ozarks.

Tune into this episode to learn how the Bothwell Regional Health Center has grown and how medicine has advanced exponentially since Stu started practicing medicine.

SHOW NOTES

• 2:30 – Stu talks about what it was like growing up in Sedalia in a big family with an orthopedic surgeon as a father
• 4:50 – Stu shares what helped lead him towards medicine and what influenced him to pursue general surgery over orthopedics or family medicine
• 8:00 – Stu explains why he decided to return to Sedalia after his education and residency programs out East
• 9:15 – Stu outlines his role as Chief of Staff at Bothwell Regional Hospital
• 10:20 – Stu and Cliff discuss some of the challenges Bothwell staff faces as a rural hospital
• 13:15 – Stu shares why a young physician should consider settling in a rural community like Sedalia and the advantages that come with it, professionally and personally
• 16:00 – Stu outlines what his typical week and surgery schedule look like
• 17:55 – Stu shares the things he is seeing from a technology standpoint that are exciting in the medical world
• 20:30 – Stu explains the emphasis he puts on the personal aspect of healthcare and taking pride in your own practices as a business
• 24:30 – Stu talks about raising his family in a small town and around the lake and the goal of spending more time down at his cabin in the future
• 25:45 – As someone who serves people on a daily basis, Stu describes the people of rural America
• 27:00 – Stu shares his closing thoughts on the community and parents being invested and involved in their kid’s education