Beloved physician's assistant moves to Sag Harbor office

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Ken Dodge

Ken Dodge, a physician assistant who has cared for thousands of town residents over the last 36 years, must leave his office in the East Hampton Healthcare Center for an office in Noyac, west of Sag Harbor.

The group he works for, Meeting House Lane Medical Practice, formerly named South Fork Medical Associates, is closing its office in the center because it has been unable to recruit a full-time practitioner to work there after the position was vacated by Dr. Michael Israel, who had been practicing in East Hampton for 20 years. As of February 2, the group will operate only out of its offices in Southampton and Noyac, Mr. Dodge said.

Mr. Dodge worked for 20 years as a physician assistant to Dr. Israel. They moved their practice into the East Hampton Healthcare Foundation on Pantico Road when it opened seven years ago. But after Southampton Hospital acquired South Fork Medical Associates in April 2008, the hospital offered Dr. Israel a job as the hospital’s house doctor, which he accepted.

In the void left by Dr. Israel, three physicians rotated through the practice, said Sheila Rogers, the director of the East Hampton Healthcare Center. Mr. Dodge, because he’s a physician assistant, must work under the supervision of a physician.

The foundation would rather have one steady doctor in the office, Ms. Rogers said.

“Unfortunately, the hospital was not able to recruit a full-time practitioner to work here in East Hampton, to take over that practice,” Ms. Rogers said. She said that East Hampton is a very expensive place to live and for physicians coming out of school with loans, the incentives to work here are low.

“Reimbursements coming from insurance companies are also lower in this area than any other part of the country,” she said. “It’s very difficult for a primary care physician to have a good financial base for starting their practice.”

Dr. George Dempsey, a family practitioner whose office in the Healthcare Center is next door to Meeting House Lane Medical Practice, is enlarging his practice and planning to take over the latter’s current office space, according to Ms. Rogers.

Mr. Dodge said that “for some reason,” although he wasn’t clear exactly what it was, Meeting House Lane Medical Practice did not find a physician to work full-time in its East Hampton office and “made a decision to close it.”

“I still need a job, so I’m going” to the Noyac location on Berkshire Road “to join Dr. Kristy Chen,” Mr. Dodge said. He said it’s possible he will do a day out in Montauk if Dr. Anthony Knott of Montauk joins the Meeting House Lane Medical Practice.

Many of Mr. Dodge’s patients are sorry and worried to see him go.

“He’s a wonderful guy,” said one of his patients, Peggy DiSunno. “That he has to leave is horrible. As a doctor he gives you 100 percent. He’s always there when you need him. He’s a very compassionate person.”

Ms. DiSunno said that people are worried about his departure because there are many elderly patients who rely on him, and it will be much harder for them to see him, because they will have to travel so far, if they can make the trip to Noyac at all.

“It’s the older patients that are of more concern to me,” Mr. Dodge said. “My concern is that they get good medical care and they have accessibility to it. But change is hard for older people.”

Mr. Dodge is also worried about his patients who live in Montauk. “There has been a fair amount of turnover with the doctors in Montauk and people have been happy being able to go somewhere where they can have a steady practitioner,” he said.

Mr. Dodge was born in Queens and began his medical career with two tours of Vietnam as a Navy hospital corpsman. After his service, he went back to school, attending the first physician assistant program at Stony Brook University. He started with the East Hampton medical group in 1973 with Dr. Robert Sucsy, who was succeeded in the late seventies by Dr. Raymond Medler. Dr. Medler eventually went into practice with Dr. Israel and then retired. Mr. Dodge worked with Dr. Israel until last fall, when Dr. Israel left to work for the hospital.

Mr. Dodge has been volunteering with the East Hampton ambulance service for the last 30 years; he was chief for five years in the early 1980s. He also served as president of the East Hampton School Board for six years in the early 1990s.

Ms. Rogers said that the foundation knows Mr. Dodge is “still going to be a factor in the health of East Hampton because of all his work with the ambulance.”

“While he might not be here during nine-to-five office hours,” she said, “he’s still going to be here 24/7 in his heart.”