Meet Anne Marie Tuohy, MD, regional medical director of pediatrics in our Richmond market!
Dr. Tuohy has been a practicing pediatrician for the last 22 years and first started her practice in Minnesota before moving to Georgia for several years. Since 2013, she has lived in Richmond and we were so lucky to have her join our ministry in 2014.
With National Doctors’ Day coming up this week, we had Dr. Tuohy answer some questions about her profession, how she found the medical field as well as what these observance mean to her. Check out her responses below.
Why did you decide to answer the call to be a physician?
“I chose to be a physician well before I even went to kindergarten. I wanted to help other people by first helping to care for my younger siblings. This, along with my love for science, specifically biology, led me to medical school and then to pediatrics, where I find taking care of children and their families most rewarding.”
What specific part of your work do you find most rewarding?
“I have devoted my life to caring for children and families, monitoring their growth and guiding their development, while helping to keep them safe and as healthy as possible in mind, body and soul. It is a unique position to have the trust and confidence of a family and the privilege of being allowed the opportunity to share some of my experience with them, gaining wonderful relationships along the way.”
When you reflect on being part of the medical profession, what are you most proud of?
“To reflect on the medical profession, I am most proud of our provider and staff resilience and ability to mold and adapt at a drop of a dime, as was the case with the entry of COVID-19 into our hospitals and communities in March 2020. Our quick maneuvering and patient-focused problem-solving brought us closer and more unified in our working to the common goal of continued care for all of our patients, meeting them where they are.”
When you think about your colleagues, what qualities or characteristics come to mind?
“My colleagues in the department of pediatrics, specialists, hospitalists and collaborating physicians together have made my practice stronger and nurturing for our patients. Our superior staff is well trained and holds each patient with the highest regard to allow us to provide the high quality, patient and cutting-edge care necessary to see the whole child in the context of their family support. This keeps me coming back for more each day, striving to be better for all of them and looking forward to that which I will learn day after day from each of them on this journey, practicing the art of medicine.”
Do you have a mentor at Bon Secours whom you’d like to acknowledge?
“As for mentors, I would like to thank Dr. Bart Rountree, Dr. Mark Townsend and Dr. Camille Graham who are advocates for our system and our patients. They have helped me grow in my practice and in my leadership abilities here.”
What’s your favorite thing about being a physician?
“I feel so fortunate to be invited into the lives of my patients and their families and share my experience and expertise to make a difference in their lives in return. It is a great honor to be in this unique role and engaged in the lives of families!”
What does National Doctors’ Day mean to you?
“National Doctors’ Day is a day in which we celebrate this relationship and with humility, we are honored to be trusted in the lives of our patients from birth through death and every journey in between.”
If you weren’t a physician, what profession would you be doing?
“If I were not a physician, I would still seek to nurture the lives of others and in so doing, that of my own, by sharing my love for science, reading, traveling and my Irish heritage with those around me. I would incorporate my compassion, as modeled through Christ’s love, with my love for knowledge to strive to make a difference in the lives of those around me.”
Help us celebrate National Doctors’ Day by sharing a heartfelt message of appreciation for your Bon Secours provider! Please visit bonsecours.com/doctorsday before March 30 to submit your message of thanks.
