UCO physician watches over students

The Edmond Sun

EDMOND April 23, 2007 03:19 pm

— Dr. John Hackney is on call to cure what ails University of Central Oklahoma students, faculty and staff at the school’s Student Health Center.
Hackney retired after 42 years in an Edmond private family practice last summer, and assumed his new role as UCO staff physician in August.
“I really enjoy working with younger people and educators,” Hackney said. “I’m able to work regular hours and with nice people.”
This is the first time in more than 45 years he has not had to work evenings and weekends. Although the hours might not be as long, Hackney remains busy. As cold and flu season melts into allergy season, he estimates he sees 10-20 patients each day. When that is added to the patients who visit with the nurse practitioners and those who come for routine appointments for diabetes management or allergy shots, the staff sees at least 50 patients each weekday.
“It’s pretty much like being a family doctor,” he said. “We do a lot of immunizations and we see patients for sexually transmitted diseases, colds and sore throats, upset stomachs, acute respiratory infections; things that are prevalent in the younger population.”
Any patient who appears to be in serious condition or who cannot be treated properly in the health center is sent to Edmond Medical Center or is referred to a local specialist.
“I am really enjoying this,” he reiterated. “I was ready to stop the day-to-day routine of private practice, but I don’t want to just go home and watch TV,” he said of his decision to pursue a post-retirement career.
He said practicing medicine has become bogged down in rules, regulations and dealing with insurance companies. “There is a huge paperwork burden these days,” he said. “There is some here, but not as much.”
But, he added, 21st century medicine does have its good points. “We have new and better techniques and tests,” he said, comparing today’s advances to when he began his career in the 1960s.
“We can prevent heart attacks and strokes and cancer.”
However, these innovations come with a price tag. “The cost of medicine is getting out of hand,” he said.
Hackney sees his role as an opportunity to educate his patients and to instill good habits while they are young.
“A lot of prevention starts with the pediatrician; it starts in childhood,” he said, adding that Oklahoma has one of the highest rates of preventable lifestyle-related diseases in the country. He sees the effects of binge drinking “all the time.”
“College is a time of exploring, branching out and risk-taking,” he said. “I try to teach good habits — weight loss, exercise, stopping smoking. This whole building, the Wellness Center, is dedicated to health promotion.”
(If you consider somebody in the community to be a local hero, contact Features Editor James Coburn at 341-2121, ext. 114, or e-mail him at jcoburn@edmondsun.com.)

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