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UMA honors Johnson for dedication to MUSC by Dick Peterson Public Relations Through the years Allen Johnson, M.D., has been MUSC’s pinch hitter. Dr. Allen Johnson “Any major task, people would turn to Allen and he would always step up to the plate,” said University Medical Associates President Bruce Elliott, M.D.  The UMA honored Johnson with a Resolution of Appreciation during a meeting of its board in June. The resolution recapped Johnson’s career by highlighting the leadership positions he has held—some of them on an interim basis—and including his service as both medical director and president of UMA. “He’s a soft-spoken, unassuming person, yet so very capable. He has given 30 years of his life to this institution, never complaining.” Elliott said that Johnson, who specializes in internal medicine, is the physician whom many of MUSC’s faculty go to when they want a doctor. “He still sees patients every day,” Elliott said. Johnson, who earned his medical degree from MUSC in 1962, became the first strictly medical intern at Medical University Hospital. Following service in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, Johnson returned to MUSC to complete his residency. Following a fellowship at Emory University, Johnson returned to Charleston in 1969 when he joined the MUSC faculty as an assistant professor of medicine and head of the section of infectious diseases. Active in MUSC’s original Professional Staff Office and University Medical Associates, as it was reorganized in 1991, Johnson was “always interested in the business side of medicine,” he said. “Both my grandfather and father were physicians, and my father owned a hospital.” Prior to 1965, when the PSO was first established, the money collected from patient care was used to run the hospital. What was left over was distributed among the physicians. The staff office was established as a partnership, a standard for academic medical centers at the time. By the time the PSO was reorganized to become University Medical Associates in 1991, Johnson had the experience to help shape it into the 501c3 practice group it is today. Its system of retaining funds generated by MUSC physicians and paying them out of those funds is beneficial to both the university and the hospital, Johnson said. Leading the UMA is an exercise in consensus building, Johnson said. “A little like herding cats. It’s been good. I’ve had more fun some times than others. But you don’t do anything without people supporting you. The key is looking out for the organization.” He recalled a particularly gut-wrenching time when looking out for the organization meant explaining to the IRS why the PSO should not be assessed a $20,000-per-day fine for not paying taxes. “Someone at the local IRS office didn’t realize we were a partnership, that we zeroed out at the end of the year and the tax was paid by the partners.” Johnson said he had to take his records and explanation to the Federal Building to get it all straightened out. As for being the university’s pinch hitter, Johnson has gained something of a reputation for running things between administrations. He has been three times the Department of Medicine’s acting chairman, twice the College of Medicine’s interim dean, and served as interim director of the Division of General Internal Medicine/Geriatrics. “I can’t figure out what I’m going to do when I grow up,” Johnson said. “But seriously, I consider myself fortunate to be able to do a lot of things while here.” He said that being the acting and the interim has a special advantage—getting to try things without having to worry about criticism. He said that while most people appreciated his work as dean and chairman, he took comfort in being able to hand off the job to someone else when the permanent position was filled. The practice of medicine has changed over the years Johnson has practiced. He recalls the 1970s when it became evident that practicing medicine involved more information than any one person could retain. “There were specialties and sub-specialties, new approaches to biology and genetics. It required the support of computers and databases, and medicine became high tech and low touch,” he said. “Sixty years ago pneumonia was the leading cause of death.” He recalls being with his father seeing patients in the hospital. It was something he liked doing and it certainly led to his choosing medicine as a career. Today he sees MUSC’s medical students as part of his legacy—his chance to pass on his love of caring for patients to a younger generation. “I’ve recruited the children of residents I’ve taught. I’m sure I’ll be gone before their grandchildren are here.  “But what’s important to me at the end of the day is to kick off my shoes and know that I did more good than harm. I’ve always been pretty compulsive about taking care of patients.” Johnson said he has a few more years to look forward to at MUSC. For him retirement will provide more time for some of his other loves. He’s engaged to be married. He has seven grandchildren, four of them living locally. He likes to read—philosophy, mythology, current documentaries, biographies. Retirement will allow him to reacquaint himself with his old love of photography.  In October, he plays golf. And in November he enjoys walks on the beach at Kiawah, presumably to think about some things he has had to laugh about over the years—among them stories about the Professional Staff Office that the Post and Courier didn’t quite get right.         Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.