Page 10 - Regions Annual Report 2022

10 | Emergency Medicine Residency 2022 Annual Report
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Peter Baggenstos, MD
MARTY RICHARDS, MD CLASS OF 2006
What brought you to Regions for your Emergency Medicine residency training, and what brought you back to HealthPartners for your job?
As a medical student at the University of Minnesota, I had the opportunity to do my clinical rotations at a number of Twin Cities hospitals and clinics, and was very impressed with the patient-focused care provided by the great people who worked at Regions, including the EM residents and staff. I was happy to have matched at Regions (which was my first choice), and developed a great feel for Regions Hospital and HealthPartners during residency, graduating the program in 2006.
While I worked with another organization following residency, I was a
EM moonlighter at Regions over the next three years, and was happy to
be asked to help out with medical direction for emergency medicine for HealthPartners in the Valley (far east metro of the Twin Cities and Western Wisconsin), which at the time was comprised of Hudson Hospital and
St. Croix Regional Medical Center. I live in Hudson, and found this was a great opportunity to help improve care in my own town.
Over your time with HealthPartners you have had many leadership positions, including your current role as Chief of Emergency Medicine and Regional Medical Director of Primary Care, St. Croix Valley - HealthPartners. Share with us why you enjoy being in leadership, what you have learned with your prior roles, and what you are excited about with your new position?
As HealthPartners and our group of community emergency medicine clinicians grew to cover five hospitals, it was pretty clear I needed some help with emergency medicine medical direction. We eventually made the jump to having a medical director for each emergency department which ensured the local hospitals were getting focused attention, and freed me up to help with broader EM tactics and strategy and work on interhospital and inter- service line issues to help provide the best care for our patients in the Valley as Chief of Emergency Medicine. Earlier this year, I added responsibilities of Regional Medical Director for Primary Care in the Valley, which has involved a great deal of learning about primary care practice and its associated challenges (still learning, for sure!).
I had really not thought much about being an administrator while in residency, and really enjoyed teaching family medicine residents in my prior job as well as teaching residents while working at Regions. Over time I’ve found I draw a great deal of energy by helping to improve operations to better deliver care for our patients. Currently,
I’m most excited to see how we can optimize transitions of care between hospital-based and outpatient operations to better serve our patients, and feel my current roles position me well to help develop solutions in this space along with helping improve practice for my primary care and emergency medicine colleagues.
Anything else you would like to share with us about life, your job, etc.?
I have full life outside of medicine. I’m the lucky dad of four young men (18, 20, 24, 24) and have a super wife, Susan (28 years) who has been a tremendous support throughout my career. We’ve lived in Hudson since 2006 with our dogs, cats, and chickens, and enjoy the parks and wildlife that surround us. We get up to our beach house on Madeline Island as much possible in the warmer months, and enjoy fishing and exploring the Apostle Islands from there. I like to alpine ski whenever I can, and favorite spots are Montana, Idaho, and Canada. Other hobbies include woodworking, working in the woods and gardening, and riding and tinkering with dirt bikes.