ACOFP Blog
For Family, By Family—ACOFP Blog
ACOFP Women in Leadership Chair Katie Lincoln, DO, MHA, FACOFP, discusses the many hats she wears across the rural health system in which she practices, as a volunteer at both the local and national levels and at home, as part of a two-physician household.
By Katie Lincoln, DO, MHA, FACOFP; Chair, ACOFP Women in Leadership CommitteeI am thankful to share a snapshot of my life with you. I graduated from a family medicine residency in 2008 in a dually accredited program. In 2013, I retrained into the field of wound care and hyperbaric medicine and have practiced in this field in the department of surgery solely since that time. I work for a medical group in rural Pennsylvania, serving 12 counties in Pennsylvania and New York state—Guthrie Medical Group.
I am a proud DO, married to a DO. As a two-physician household, we balance our time, our family, our patient care and our responsibilities. Our children are 9 years old and 8 years old, and they are active in sports and activities. My darling husband (a GI physician) is also a great handyman!
My in-laws choose to live with us (Thank God!). We live together and eat dinner together as a family as much as possible. They help our family with the kids, with our sanity and with running the household. They are kind and wonderful people, and I know I won the in-law lottery.
I have been able to job craft to suit my highest callings. I care for patients in the clinic Mondays and Tuesdays. Wednesdays, I round in the hospital to see inpatients and act as the wound care liaison for my colleagues in family medicine, internal medicine and surgery.
Most mornings while I drive to work, I use the app Marco Polo to video chat asynchronously with two physician mom best friends—one in Tennessee, the other in Louisiana. We chat about life, medicine, parenting and silly dramas of the day. They are part of my secret sauce that make me joyful and focused.
For the last three years, I have been the entire system’s physician process owner for engagement. I use the skills I learned while getting my master’s degree in healthcare administration in 2019, and it feels like work worth doing. In addition, like most clinicians, 2020 brought me into learning telemedicine and being able to have meaningful interactions with patients in a host of new ways.
I choose to be responsible for teaching residents in family medicine and internal medicine episodically. This month, I am enjoying the company of Molly Whitham, DO, PGY-3. In addition, nursing students are often rounding with our team and trying to pick up tidbits and tricks. I am a sucker for joining many committees at work, through ACOFP, and in my local community. I currently serve as chair of the ACOFP Women’s Leadership committee and chair of the Credentials Committee at Robert Packer Hospital. I enjoy getting to see how work gets done, how change happens, and how the wheels turn on the local and national levels. I like to be in the know, and boring meetings are where that information is conveyed.
During my time away from work, I have a typical small town life; I drive my kids to school, attend committee meetings by Zoom and often see my patients at the Walmart in town. My friendships from the community and work are so important to me. Text threads have been joyful during COVID-time. Our children are playing fall sports (cheer/football), so I exercise by walking while they are at practice as much as I can.
I love reading and have chosen to have the summer of reading Beverly Cleary books and am working my way through her body of literature. The only thing I love more than reading is napping.
Currently, my brain is full of COVID-19 back to school planning, new goal setting, trying to squeeze exercise in somewhere, keeping my patients’ need for clinical excellence in the foreground and deciding what to make for dinner.
ACOFP is a community of current and future family physicians that champions osteopathic principles and supports its members by providing resources such as education, networking and advocacy, while putting patients first.
Wonderful post Dr. Lincoln! Thank you for sharing. The ACOFP and POFPS are lucky to have your leadership and dedication to Osteopathic family medicine and your patients.