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The Doctor Leading The Way
The Doctor Leading The Way:
VT Health Commissioner Paul Jarris
Dr. Paul Jarris, the new Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health, has an impossible job.
“I prefer ‘challenging,’” he said. He oversees a department of 520 employees, 12 district offices, and a $74 million budget and is charged with protecting and promoting the health and wellbeing of Vermonters.
“I’m working with our management team to really take a look to see, are we giving Vermonters all they deserve given the resources we have in this department? That’s one question and process that has set the direction for public health in the state,” said Jarris, who brings years of clinical care and business management experience to the position.
“How can we build Vermonters the best possible public health system?” asked Jarris. “That’s where I want to go.”
A husband and father of three children, Dr. Jarris grew up outside New York City. He attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania and has a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Washington. Governor Jim Douglas appointed Dr. Jarris in March of 2003.
“I’m a family doc,” said Jarris. “I’ve always practiced until a couple of months ago when I took this position.” Dr. Jarris maintained a family practice while serving as President and CEO of Vermont Permanente Medical Group, and CEO of Primary Care Health Partners, two large primary care groups. Before that, he was Medical Director at Community Health Plan, the state’s largest health maintenance organization.
“What I loved about HMOs was we had a fixed amount of resources to care for a population. You do that through prevention, early identification of disorders, trying to help people deal if they had an illness in the most efficient and highest quality fashion,” said Jarris. “It really is not that different than a public health approach.”
In spite of his extraordinary experience with both the practice and business of medicine, Dr. Jarris is quite humble about his new job.
“I don’t pretend to be an expert,” said Jarris. “I’ve been in this job for six months and most of what I’ve been doing is learning, which is what I love. I like to take the approach of letting people know what I don’t know instead of pretending.” Through his practice, Dr. Jarris has developed an approach to diversity and working with the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities.
“I’ve had patients come to me from many communities, including gay men, lesbians, transsexuals. I think I am comfortable dealing with issues,” said Jarris. As a doctor, “if I have a transsexual patient, I will say, ‘Help me tailor what we’re doing specifically to your needs.’ So I think I’ve learned a lot from practice. I’ve learned to be compassionate and that everybody has a story. You don’t judge them. It’s not your job.”
AIDS aside, public health has never been a high priority for Vermont’s gay political leadership and caring for the public health needs of queer Vermonters has never been an area in which the Vermont Department of Health has excelled.
“The needs of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender population are important,” said Jarris. “It’s important to me, it’s important to the department. It’s not going away.”
Ric Kasini Kadour last wrote about the National Gay Men’s Health Summit in the July 2003 issue of OITM. He lives in Shoreham.