By Terrica Hendrix
News-Leader staff
The “warm and friendly” people of Nashville – among other things – helped Dr. Charles A. Beard decide to become one of the hospitalists at Howard Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Beard was born and raised in Wichita, Kan., “where my family [parents and sister]” still reside.
In 1973, Beard graduated from Wichita State University and went to the University of Kansas Medical Center and graduated in 1977 as an M.D.
“I went on to do a straight Internal Medicine Residency in Tucson, Ariz.,” he said. “I finished my residency in 1980 and went on to private practice in northeast Colorado for five years where I met my wife, Beverly, who at the time was a hospital pharmacy intern at a small hospital in Sterling, Colo. I practiced Intensive Care Unit medicine and office practice until 1986 in Sterling with another internist.”
The Beards were recruited to live in Eureka Springs “to support the small hospital there and have been there for 31 years ever since – she [Beverly] as the hospital pharmacist and I as a practicing internist caring for patients in the hospital and in the outpatient department at my office across the street from the hospital.” The couple reared their three children in Eureka Springs.
Beard decided to become a HMH hospitalist “after having my fill of office practice with all the rules and hoops to jump through to get tests ordered and prescriptions filled, etc. I decided it was time for a change in my professional career. I looked around on the Internet for a new kind of job
called a “Hospitalist” – a rapidly growing subspecialty where you only take care of patients in the hospital – no office work. I decided to go to Nashville to see the facility as it was clear they had a newer hospital that was very well staffed and outfitted for the kind of medicine I was interested in. The visit there was very enlightening with a state-of-the-art facility and equipment and a wonderful medical staff and nursing staff,” he said.
He signed an exclusive contract with HMH on Jan. 1 and has been alternating weeks with fellow hospitalist Dr. Chinedu Ede. Beard said that he and Dr. Ede “together, we try our best to provide continuity of care for our patients and communicate with the family physicians in the area. The town of Nashville is a unique city with very warm and friendly people as well as a good economic base and plenty to do with hunting and fishing and lake activities as well as golf – which I still dabble in from time to time,” he said.
“HMH continues to provide the very best care for each patient it sees whether in the emergency room or surgery or outpatients department and appears to be dedicated to expanding and continuing to serve the medical needs of the community to the best of its ability. It [HMH] has an enthusiastic administration and hospital board who work very well together – which is special nowadays. Healthcare is going through a rough time right now, but the people involved with running our hospital are an incredible team and together we will do our best to provide the highest quality care for our community,” he said.
