Arthur M. Townsend IV not only bears the name of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, he also has kept the chain going in terms of occupation. All four of the Townsends have been physicians.
But for a time the odds didn’t look good that the youngest man in the continuum would have the following initials behind his name: MD, MBA, FACOG, not to mention his current title, system director of clinical quality and effectiveness at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare.
As a young man Townsend IV had no intention of following in his father’s footsteps. His great-grandfather and grandfather were general practitioners. His father was an ob/gyn.
As a youngster growing up in St. Louis, Townsend knew little about what his dad’s life was like as a physician.
“My dad was very purposeful in not bringing us to the office or to the hospital,” he said, referring to himself and his four sisters. “I’ve heard of a lot of other kids of medical professionals who encouraged them to join the field. My dad did not do that.”
After his parents divorced, Townsend’s father moved to Memphis in 1976 to work in an ob-gyn practice, and the younger Townsend eventually went to the University of Missouri to study psychology.
The influence of some of his fellow psychology majors and premed students was what got him thinking about becoming a doctor.
“It wasn’t something that I ever talked to my dad about,” he said. “It wasn’t until my junior year that I changed my focus to premed.”
While he was in medical school at the University of Nebraska, he found an interest in obstetrics and gynecology, and again it wasn’t because that was what his father did.
“When I did my ob/gyn rotations,” he said, “I realized it provided me an opportunity to do several of the things I really enjoy about medicine. One is surgery, another is taking care of patients with medical problems, and the third thing is the relationship and the trust that ob-gyn physicians have with their patients.”
After Townsend did his residency at the University of Kansas, that’s when the family tie with his father finally came into play. He went straight to Memphis to join him.
“He asked me to come join his practice,” he said. “Of course I did that.”
They practiced together from 1994 until 2002, when Arthur M. Townsend III retired. Townsend IV continued to run the practice until it closed last August.
The way his career evolved and the minor role of his father “was something that I really, really appreciated, especially later in life,” he said. “I came to realize how probably difficult that was for him but also how important it was for me to come to all of the conclusions that I came to without feeling pressure to pursue a particular career or a particular specialty.”
Along the way, Townsend made a commitment to education, and within two years of his arriving in Memphis in 1994 he was given the Louie C. Henry, MD Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of Tennessee.
As busy as he was in private practice, Townsend began to take another path that would turn his focus to patient safety, quality control and positions of leadership.
“I had opportunities that were presented and I said yes,” he said. “I was in the middle of a very busy private practice, I was teaching with the residents, an active member of the medical staff at Methodist Central, and then an opportunity came up to be the ob/gyn department chairman for Methodist.”
The encouragement of several physicians, including Charles Handorf, T.M. Carr and Gail Thurmond, “helped me grow into higher and higher leadership roles, from department chair to president of the medical staff, to chief of staff …”
He also was encouraged to pursue an MBA as a way to “augment my leadership skill set.” He earned that degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 2013. In another era, it would have been difficult to leave a family in Memphis to go study in Knoxville, but thankfully for the Townsends times have changed.
“It was difficult, but it was manageable because the MBA program had an online component to it, so I was able to do some of my work from home or from work here in Memphis,” he said.
Prior to that, Townsend and Dr. Thomas Gray started an OB hospitalist company, Integrated Physician Services, to provide staffing for Methodist Germantown. Townsend is president of that company.
He describes OB hospitalists as “experienced, board-certified ob/gyns who provide a continuous physician presence in labor and delivery units, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
The creation of and continued management of the OB hospitalist program is the achievement of which Townsend is most proud.
“When we launched the program in 2009,” he said, “we were one of the first OB hospitalist programs in Tennessee, so starting the program at Methodist Germantown was pretty cutting edge.
“We have created an environment of enhanced patient safety that has positively impacted the lives on countless mothers and babies. In obstetrics, the labor process can change from routine into an emergent situation almost immediately, and there are a very few minutes in which action must be taken. That’s the role we play – we are always there, always ready to respond.
“It’s the most rewarding thing that I have done in my career because every single day you get to go to work and provide the safety net that saves mothers and babies when there is an emergency. Seeing healthy babies, healthy moms and happy families as a direct result of our work makes the long hours and late nights all worth it.”
Townsend estimates that he has delivered more than 3,500 babies, although that part of his job has diminished. As an OB hospitalist, he said, “I still practice obstetrics but in an inpatient hospital setting.”
His wife, Deborah, has a degree in public relations and master’s degrees in human resource management and HR development. She does human resource and PR consulting and at times has helped in the private practice.
They have a daughter, Isabella, who is in high school.
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