photo by: Contributed Photo

Kirk Sloan sits in the cockpit of a helicopter circa 1997.

During the week, you can find Dr. Savannah Ericksen caring for patients of all ages at LMH Health Primary Care — Sixth and Maine. But one weekend each month, she serves in a different capacity as a major in the Missouri National Guard.

Ericksen joined the National Guard during her sophomore year in college. She played soccer at the University of Nebraska and while she loved it, it wasn’t something that was paying the bills. She decided to join the National Guard, following in the footsteps of other family members in the armed forces.

“Not only did it help me pay for school, it also gave me the opportunity to figure out if I really wanted to get into medicine,” she said. “Twelve years of school is a big commitment and not knowing if I’d like being in health care was nerve wracking. Becoming a medic gave me the opportunity to see if it would be the right career for me.”

Ericksen took a semester away from college to attend basic training at Fort Jackson, North Carolina, and AIT (Advanced Individual Training) at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. It was there that she met her future husband in the medical detachment unit working to provide health assessments for soldiers. While that was the beginning of her medical career, an intensely personal experience reaffirmed her commitment.

“My sister, who was in the Air Force, passed away in a car accident that we were in shortly after I got back from training,” she said. “I had the training as a medic and was able to respond, even though there was nothing that could have been done. I realized that was probably the hardest thing I’d ever have to do in medicine, so anything else was possible.”

Ericksen now works as a family medicine physician, caring for patients from babies to seniors.

“I like being able to take care of the whole family. That’s part of the reason it meant so much, that it was my sister I was trying to take care of — my family. Even now, I can relate to people better because of that and family medicine was the right fit,” she said.

Without the structure of the National Guard, Ericksen is confident that she would not be working as a physician. She learned time management, accountability and leadership skills — especially integrity and helping others rise.

“It’s easy to do the right thing in front of people, but it can be harder to do it when nobody else is watching. That’s important to me,” she said. “I want my kids and my patients to know that no matter what’s going on or what the situation is, I’m going to assess and treat you the best way I know how. You’re going to get all of my effort.”

From avionics to administration

A career in health care wasn’t immediately on the horizon for Dr. Kirk Sloan. He joined the Army fresh out of high school in 1992 and began working in avionics, or, as he describes it, radios for helicopters.

“Coming from a really small town in Missouri, my time in the Army gave me a different perspective and broadened my view of the world,” he said. “It gave me the opportunity to travel and meet people, as I was stationed in Korea for a year, and opened my eyes to some of the struggles that people go through.”

One of the benefits of serving in the armed forces is the GI Bill. Since 1944, it has helped qualifying veterans and their family members pay for college, graduate school and training programs. After six years in the Army, Sloan used these benefits on a new adventure.

He received an honorable discharge as a specialist and moved to Wichita. He used the skills he learned in the service to land a job with Cessna aircraft where he worked while earning an undergraduate degree from Wichita State University.

“I wasn’t sure that I wanted to work in avionics for the rest of my career, but I knew I wanted to take care of others,” he said. “I initially thought I’d like to be a psychiatrist, but I determined that wasn’t the right path for me and turned to internal medicine. I went down a winding road to find the right career and it’s been the perfect choice for me.”

Sloan now works as LMH Health’s chief medical officer and in a clinical role with the health system’s hospitalist program. He previously held positions as the CMO and lead hospitalist at St. Joseph Medical Center in Kansas City, and as a hospitalist at St. Francis Hospital in Topeka. He credits some of the lessons he learned in the service with his success.

“The Army showed me how important discipline is and the importance of being fair,” he said. “Being in the military, giving back to your country and supporting it are really important, and in health care we do the same thing. We take care of our people.”

— Autumn Bishop is the marketing manager and content strategist at LMH Health, which is a sponsor of the Lawrence Journal-World’s health section.