To the editor:

I have a few concerns that perhaps need to be clarified by those in charge at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. There have been two recent articles published by the Journal-World regarding the active recruitment of two medical specialties to the area, those being endocrinology and rheumatology. The physician recruiter, Sherri Vaughn, made the statement that there are no physicians in the area with these specialties. That was proven to not be a true statement.

In the second article, she qualified her first statement by adding “under the age of 60.” I am not sure if it was pointed out to her that she made a mistake or that she does not consider physicians at or near the magical age of 60 to be part of the medical community any longer. Do we no longer value education, experience, knowledge and expertise gained through years of practice? Especially in a field where one can not even begin to start to practice before more than a decade of education and training requirements are met?  

I think what is more disturbing is that the person making these statements is the one responsible for recruiting physicians to this area. Would I be wrong to believe, then, that she would not consider recruiting a new physician to this area that is of or near that age since she clearly dismisses or does not acknowledge those already here of that age?