Dr. David Lipschitz
Dr. David has made his rounds.
Saline Memorial Hospital in Benton last week laid off Dr. David Lipschitz, who had been working at the hospital since last fall.
In October, the hospital announced it hired the well-known geriatrician to be responsible for the medical management of the Healthy Aging Center at Saline Memorial.
Lipschitz said that Saline management decided that “initiating a geriatric clinic was just financially unattainable.”
Bob Trautman, CEO of Saline Memorial, said that, in the face of a “significant” budgeted loss for the aging center in 2014, “we really had no choice but to close the center.”
“The draw of patients to the center and the design was one where we had hoped to support the clinic via outpatient ancillary services and inpatient referrals to the hospital,” Trautman said. “However, those referrals never materialized given the model of delivery in that setting.”
Trautman said the hospital was fortunate to have had Lipschitz involved in the project and the prestige he brough to the hospital.
Lipschitz said he hated to go.
“I loved working there,” he said. “I was extremely sad to leave that place.”
He said 85 percent of his patients traveled 30 miles or more to see him.
In the last 18 months, Lipschitz, 70, has had a number of jobs in Little Rock.
He announced in February 2012 that he was leaving The Longevity Center at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center, where he had been since 2008. At the time, Lipschitz said he was leaving the St. Vincent job and planned to join Baptist Medical Center.
But the Baptist position fell apart before he was hired. Instead, he started his own clinic: the Dr. David Health Clinic in Little Rock.
He had the clinic for about six months before receiving the offer from Saline Memorial.
Lipschitz said he jumped at the job, so he didn’t have to worry about billing and collections “and all those things.”
Now, he’s not sure what he’s going to do.
“I certainly hope to get a job somewhere, but I have no idea … when or where or how,” he said. “I’m sure that something will work out, though.”
Before joining St. Vincent, Lipschitz was chairman of the Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and director of the Reynolds Institute on Aging. Lipschitz has written books on geriatric health and writes a weekly column for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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