After 33 years of working as a doctor in the Big Lake community, Dr. Lola Sutherland is finally retiring from clinical practice, in order to spend more time traveling with her husband, Duane Palm.

 

Dr. Sutherland served as chief medical officer for the Monticello-Big Lake Hospital for many years. For the past eight years, she has been working at the Big Lake Clinic on Hwy. 10.

 

“I had it planned as a seven-year project,” said Dr. Sutherland, who lived close enough to walk to work. “It pretty much went as I hoped. The recession hit at the wrong time for a new clinic but I think it is pretty well established now and on solid ground.”

 

Dr. Sutherland credits the hospital board with having the foresight to create a permanent clinic in Big Lake.

 

“They supported it,”  she said. “It was visionary actually.”

 

Dr. Sutherland has a replacement, Dr. Jessica Hodson, who will be coming down from Aitkin in September. Dr. Hodson will have more clinic hours then Dr. Sutherland. 

 

There will be an open house at the Big Lake Clinic the afternoon of Aug. 27 for everyone to wish Dr. Sutherland well and welcome Dr. Hodson.

 

In addition to trips to Australia to see three grandchildren, Dr. Sutherland is moving across the river to Monticello, where she started her career, to build a new home.

“That’s where we found the land,” she said. “I think this will be a very vibrant retirement community. There is always a lot going on.”

 

Looking back over the years, Dr. Sutherland said it was actually to her advantage to be a female in a male dominated profession. 

 

She first set up practice with Dr. Donald Maus in Monticello. As a general practitioner, she served a wide range of patients and delivered a good many babies.

 

“The nurses were wonderful,” she recalled. “Especially when I was working OB. I have always enjoyed good support from the medical community. Even when I was teaching in St. Cloud, everything was always very egalitarian. Being a woman has been an asset.”

 

“Big Lake, as a community, tries really hard,” Dr. Sutherland said. “It was hit hard by the recession. It had an impact on people’s health. I remember they were coming to see me while they still had insurance or they put things off because they didn’t have any insurance.”

 

“From what I have seen of the Affordable Care Act so far, it has been good. People can get preventive care, especially seniors, and more people qualify for insurance now,” she said.

 

Of all the patients she has had to treat over the years, the ones who have been the hardest to help are the ones who have suffered from abuse, Dr. Sutherland said. 

“Whether it was sexual or verbal abuse, those people can never totally shed that disadvantage,” she said. “The neediest among us have such a tough time of it. I am thankful I was protected from all that when I was growing up.”

 

“Another group which has a very hard time is the people with long-term mental health issues. It is hard for them to be consistent with their self-care,” she said. “They have been a big part of our population too.”

 

Dr. Sutherland says she is pleased to have CentraCare Health at the helm of local health care these days-another wise decision made by the hospital board-and lives their motto of doing her best to improve the health of every patient every day.

 

The basics of medicine stay the same, Dr. Sutherland said. Eating good food, getting plenty of exercise, a good night’s sleep and staying hydrated are all key to maintaining good health. Not smoking and losing excess weight are equally important. As a consultant, she will have more time to drive the message home.

 

CentraCare Health has greatly improved the conditions at the hospital and has worked hard to improve relationships with the doctors of Monticello Clinic, hiring Dr. John Hering, one of the chief dissenters against the old regime.

 

 “The whole hospital community has worked really hard to get through a rough patch,” she said. “It’s easy to go down hill. We have been working hard to make it better and getting back to being the better organization.”

 

Economies of scale and the depth of support an organization like CentraCare Health provides for staff and patients is too hard to duplicate in a small, independent practice these days, Dr. Sutherland said.

 

Another game-changer is the electronic medical record, which has been designed more for research and recordkeeping than maintaining peoples' stories, Dr. Sutherland said.

 

“I have a fairly complicated geriatric practice,” she said. “It takes a little more time. I wonder sometimes how all their information will really be passed on.”

 

“It has been a real privilege to work in this community with the people I have known for the past 30 plus years,” she said. “It has been interesting, watching them go out into the world and be successful. It has been really fun.”