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Published on: 10/31/2009
Last Visited: 10/31/2009
Sheets will lead Medical Society
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RUTHERFORDTON - After 31 years as an obstetrician, Dr. Douglas Sheets has delivered babies for babies he delivered.
It's no wonder - he's brought 3,883 into the world since moving here in 1978.
Sheets, who started off pre-dental in school, entered private practice with Rutherford OB-GYN Associates and joined the staff at Rutherford Hospital.
Today he will take on an additional role as the 156th President of the North Carolina Medical Society.
"There's a Chinese ideogram for crisis - one for danger and one for opportunity," Sheets said of the presidency.
"It's going to be an exciting time.
I'm honored to be selected, and excited."
The society, which is made up of more than 12,000 physicians from across the state, will be dealing in the upcoming year with abortion issues and those elements of health care reform it finds important, Sheets said.
"For the next year my opinion will be what policy is best for the North Carolina Medical Society," Sheets said.
Along with his patient load, Sheets will travel to Raleigh several times per month to fulfill his duties as president.
"We will try to maintain communication with other key people in the state to keep the groups working together," he said.
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Sheets said he believed he was the first OB doctor to have a father in the operating room during a Caesarean.
"That baby is now dating my daughter," he said.
One of the highlights in his career Sheets is most proud of is the expansion of the hospital and the relocation of The Birth Place closer to the operating room.
"When I was asked where I wanted it, I told them as close to surgery as possible," he said.
Recruiting physicians to a rural area isn't always easy, but Sheets has been successful in getting five OB doctors in the county.
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Being the society's president, Sheets said, "is humbling."
"When you go into our board room there's a whole wall of people, and I can follow these guys who are giants in the medical field," he said.