Mesa College Black HIstory - Interview with Dr. Richard Butcher
This San Diego Community Coalition Forum interview, conduct by Alyce Smith Cooper, explores issues concerning affordable health care with Dr. Richard Butcher, a champion of the underserved in San Diego.…
This San Diego Community Coalition Forum interview, conduct by Alyce Smith Cooper, explores issues concerning affordable health care with Dr. Richard Butcher, a champion of the underserved in San Diego.
Dr. Richard, Serving the Underserved
Excerpts from article by Paul Sisson published November 16, 2016 San Diego Union Tribune
We lost Dr. Richard Butcher in 2016. The following excerpts tell the story of his career serving the underserved in San Diego.
Dr. Butcher invested his time and passions into far more than his Lincoln Park practice on Euclid Avenue. He and Hood founded the Multicultural Medical Group, which brought together 150 primary-care doctors and 220 specialists in San Diego and South Bay to serve patients from diverse backgrounds.
The group has recently been on the cutting edge of population-based medicine. It received a $1.1 million federal grant in 2012 to focus on its patients whose chronic medical needs cause them to consume an outsized proportion of medical resources. That work, Dr. Butcher said last year, saved about $4 million by reducing use of local emergency rooms. The results were positive enough that they increased interest from private insurance companies and won Dr. Butcher the “Practitioner of the Year” award from the National Medical Association.
After graduating from Meharry Medical College, Dr. Butcher, a Navy reservist, was stationed in San Diego in 1965. After a stint treating sailors on transport ships during the Vietnam War, and a few jobs at Southern California hospitals, he returned to San Diego and set up his practice.
There was also a strong undercurrent of mentorship for younger doctors. Dr. Latisa Carson, who recalls meeting Mr. Butcher during a community health fair at age 11, said he helped her start her own practice in Chula Vista after she earned her medical degree.
She said his support made it possible for her to become San Diego’s only African American female solo practitioner obstetrician and gynecologist.
“He sat with me, and he was really supportive and encouraging about giving it a try. He accepted my application into the medical group, and he helped me get off the ground by referring me patients,” she said.
paul.sisson@sduniountribune.com
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