Second infectious disease specialist joins Moore Regional program
| Date Posted: 4/22/2010
Second infectious disease specialist joins Moore Regional program
PINEHURST – Gretchen Shaughnessy Arnoczy, M.D., was working with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta when she developed a particular interest in infectious diseases.
“It’s the most interesting specialty in medicine,” she says. “It involves solving mysteries every day.”
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Gretchen S. Arnoczy, M.D. |
Later, while completing a fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Arnoczy did a two-month specialty rotation in the infectious diseases program at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital. The experience helped her decide she preferred the patient contact of a medical practice to the non-patient world of research.
“I really enjoyed the work and the patients I worked with while I was there,” she says of her rotation at FirstHealth. “There was a feeling of warmth and camaraderie among the people who worked there, and I decided it was the place I wanted to be.”
Dr. Arnoczy recently joined Paul Jawanda, M.D., as the second infectious diseases specialist at the Infectious Disease Center at Moore Regional. The program, which is located in the Specialty Centers Building on the hospital campus, has grown considerably since its implementation in 2005.
It serves Moore and surrounding counties in the treatment of both common and uncommon infection-related issues including complicated skin and wound infections, infections associated with chemotherapy or other immune-suppressing medical treatment, infections associated with implanted medical devices, and in helping travelers with preventing communicable diseases while abroad.
“We feel Moore Regional’s Infectious Diseases program supports the best of both worlds,” Dr. Jawanda says. “The local and regional medical community can consult us to see their inpatients at Moore Regional as well as ask for outpatient evaluation at the Infectious Disease Center. We offer high-quality and thorough care that reflects the most up-to-date evidence-based changes in the area of infectious diseases. We also pride ourselves on the TLC we give our patients.”
Having an outpatient clinic also allows infectious disease providers to follow up with certain patients after they are discharged from the hospital to ensure full recovery. “An added plus is that the outpatient clinic is not only for the sick,” says Dr. Jawanda. “Future plans include the addition of a Travel Medicine Clinic where patients can seek advice on how to prepare for and be vaccinated for out-of-country travels.”
A native of Missouri, Dr. Arnoczy grew up in Orlando, Fla., and received her undergraduate degree from Florida’s Jacksonville University and her medical degree from the University of South Florida in Tampa.
She did her internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina’s School of Medicine, where she also completed the fellowship in infectious diseases. She is board certified in internal medicine.
During Dr. Arnoczy’s infectious diseases fellowship in Chapel Hill, one of her areas of focus was HIV, especially in minorities, an interest that she developed while working at the CDC.
“The Southeast has a disproportionate burden of the disease, especially in marginalized populations,” she says. “There is also greater stigma, so it’s a challenging problem to face.”
Dr. Arnoczy’s other areas of special interest include employee health and vaccines.
“I am pleased to have such an intelligent and compassionate physician joining us,” says Dr. Jawanda.
For more information on the Infectious Disease Center at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital, call (800) 213-3284.
