Dennis Berman, MD, has been practicing medicine for 40 years since his graduation from Temple University School of Medicine in 1977. For most of those years – since the time he completed his fellowship training at the University of Pennsylvania – he has led the cancer program at Chester County Hospital.
"That's a pretty good run," he said recently, "and I haven't missed a day of work for sickness since I've been at the hospital."
A 35-year "run" deserving of both recognition and some down time.
On August 1, 2017, Dr. Berman stepped down as Medical Director of the Abramson Cancer Center at Chester County Hospital and as Chairman of the Chester County Hospital Cancer Committee. As a specialist in hematologic and solid tumor malignancies, he remains on the team, though, he is leaving behind the administrative responsibilities to focus on seeing patients three days a week. His longtime colleagues, William Luginbuhl, MD, and Maureen Hewitt, MD, are now sharing the role of medical director.
"There are many responsibilities that come with being medical director; it made sense to have two people for this position," Dr. Berman said of the practice that logs 35,000 patient visits a year, "and they are doing an excellent job."
The practice’s growth is a testament to Dr. Berman’s careful stewardship since he first hung up his shingle and started a solo practice in 1982, along with the sterling reputation among patients and physicians of what is an unusually robust cancer program for a community hospital. The center’s milestones are a reflection of both the remarkable advances in cancer treatments and the dramatic changes in the business side of practicing medicine.
"I stayed solo until 1989,” Dr. Berman said, "and then began recruiting a group of absolutely superb academic clinicians who are all nice people, as well."
From the start, Dr. Berman has been committed to a team approach, both among his colleagues and with the administrative team at Chester County Hospital.
"The emphasis I’ve had is that practicing medicine is not about any individual physician or their job," he said. "The emphasis is on the team. Everyone has to work together to provide the best possible care for our patients."
Dr. Berman adopted a self-proclaimed "Quaker philosophy," which stressed the importance of maintaining a work-life balance and ensuring everyone is treated equally. That meant sharing duties like being on-call, no matter if someone was a senior partner or the most junior. The same applied to compensation. "To make a sports analogy, I really didn’t pay differently for the person who ran for the first down or the person who blocked," he said.
At the Abramson Cancer Center, it is standard procedure for doctors to consult one another, so patients often witness the clinical team in action. "On a regular basis, I’ll call in a few of my partners, who are all really intelligent individuals, introduce them to my patient and say, ‘How do you think we should care for this person?’ Sometimes I would ask this question blindly so they wouldn’t know what I have already told the patient. So the patient got to see other members of the group, hear their input, and I think it’s very reassuring to people."
One past advertising campaign for the center summed up his philosophy: Why get a second opinion when you can get 12?
The growing practice formed a joint venture owned by Penn Medicine and Chester County Hospital in 1998, and that same year moved from its smaller office on Maple Avenue to 440 East Marshall Street. The new site was designed to handle five clinicians, with 12 exam rooms and an equal number of chemotherapy chairs. Satellite offices were opened in Exton and Kennett Square. In 2010, the joint venture ended and the practice became a wholly owned subsidiary of Chester County Hospital. In 2013, the hospital merged with Penn Medicine and the physicians in the group joined Penn’s academic faculty in 2015.
Now, with 11 doctors and 10 nurse practitioners, it was time to expand. Occupying two floors of the East Marshall Medical Office Building, the practice is doubling its footprint to 20,000 square feet. The first floor, with 25 exam rooms, opened in August of 2017, and the second, including 25 state-of-the-art chemotherapy infusion bays, is scheduled to be finished in the summer of 2018. The physician group has grown from medical oncology to a multidisciplinary practice that includes a thoracic surgeon, a gynecology oncologist and two breast surgeons. The practice also has a strong collaboration with other sub-specialty physicians based at Chester County Hospital and Penn Medicine, though almost all services can be provided in Chester County, PA.
Dr. Berman decided that the move to expand the facility was also the right time for a change in leadership. Now, he can look back on his 35 years at the helm with extreme satisfaction.
"We have a world-class cancer program that can really bring state-of-the-art care to people close to where they live, which has been our goal all along,” he said, adding that the staff members are the heart and soul of the practice. “The make-up of this team is a legacy I’m proud to leave for the community."