Beeville surgeon plans to leave
Dr. Mario Salazar is the only surgeon living in Bee County with privileges at the local hospital
Dr. Mario Salazar
By SCOTT REESE WILLEY
Bee-Picayune staff
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posted July 23 -
Bee County’s only surgeon with privileges at Christus Spohn Hospital Beeville is leaving the area.
Dr. Mario Salazar has announced plans to move his family once he finds employment elsewhere, a Christus Spohn executive confirmed Tuesday.
“We will really miss him,” said Jerry Rodriguez, vice president and chief operating officer of Christus Spohn Hospital Beeville. “He was a great guy and everyone enjoyed working with him. Trust me, if I could talk him out of leaving, I would.”
Salazar announced his intentions last week, almost one year after he began performing surgical procedures at the county-owned hospital leased by Christus Spohn Health System.
“He didn’t give us a time frame for when he was leaving but he did say his decision to leave had nothing to do with the community or the people,” Rodriguez explained. “He said the people of Bee County were wonderful and Bee County was a great place to work.”
Rodriguez said Salazar told him he was moving for “family reasons.”
Bee County Judge David Silva said, who was informed of surgeon’s decision on Monday, said Salazar was leaving because his wife had a difficult time living in a small town.
“I was told that, apparently, his wife is from a large town, New York, and lived in Chicago, and just could not acclimate to Beeville,” Silva explained. “His leaving is not a matter of patient load or salary, but of doing what is best for his family. You know, getting plugged into South Texas after living in Chicago is in itself a formidable task. We are finding this ‘anomaly’ — if you want to call it that — in small towns everywhere: people not wanting to move to a small community.”
He confided that the loss of the only surgeon with privileges at the Beeville hospital is a loss for the community.
“It’s never a good thing when a surgeon leaves a community, no matter what the reason,” he said. “They are a critical component of the community.”
Rodriguez said Christus Spohn will bring in surgeons from Corpus Christi or other surrounding communities as they are needed to fill the vacancy until a new surgeon can be recruited.
“I want to assure the people of Bee County that we will have surgical coverage here,” he said.
Rodriguez said the health system already is seeking out a replacement surgeon willing to live and work in Bee County.
“The recruitment process has already begun,” he said.
Salazar was the only surgeon living in Beeville who had privileges at the hospital.
He replaced a surgeon who resigned his privileges at the Beeville hospital in the spring of 2006 because of a falling out with Christus Spohn management.
Dr. Rodney Schorlemmer, who still lives in Beeville and has a practice here, performs surgical procedures at hospitals in Karnes and Refugio counties.
A second surgeon who lived in Beeville, Dr. Mike Belew, also resigned his privileges at Christus Spohn Hospital Beeville in 2006.
Belew, who was born and raised in Beeville, also had a falling out with Christus Spohn management.
Belew accepted a position with a medical practice in Victoria.
Rodriguez told county commissioners earlier this year that the hospital would not immediately attempt to find a second surgeon to replace Belew in order to give Salazar time to get his practice up and running.
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