Aloha … from BetheExperienced family physician returns to Vermont, joins Chelsea practice
RANDOLPH, Jan. 6, 2009 – A native Vermonter with 20 years of experience in family care is making the Chelsea Health Center his workplace and town of Washington his home.
Dr. Brian Sargent returned to Vermont and Gifford Medical Center last month after a career in the U.S. Navy that spanned 32 years.
Born in Northfield, Dr. Sargent grew up in Bradford and Underhill. He spent time at Gifford in 1984 as part of his student rotations with beloved family physician Dr. Ken Borie.
“Dr. Borie and I really hit it off and he said, ‘I know you’re joining the Navy, but when you’re out, look us up,’ and I did,” says Dr. Sargent, who resembles the kind, soft-spoken Dr. Borie.
It was during a family Christmas celebration last year in Barre, where his parents and brother live, that Dr. Sargent took a drive and found 100 acres for sale in Washington. Across the town line, he found the Chelsea Health Center, saw it was part of Gifford Medical Center and did just what Dr. Borie had suggested more than two decades earlier – he contacted Gifford about a job at the Chelsea clinic.
He started seeing patients there this week.
“He’s a wonderful addition to the team,” office manager Mayra Brink noted. “He is knowledgeable and has vast experience in the health care field, from prenatal care all the way ‘to the grave,’ as he says. He is a valuable asset to the practice.”
“Cradle to grave” care is a term family physicians often use for what they do, and this lifelong care is what the Chelsea Health Center’s Dr. Robert Kiess, physician assistant Starr Strong and now Dr. Sargent specialize in.
“I like taking care of pediatrics to geriatrics,” Dr. Sargent says. Wellness and preventative medicine are among his interests.
And the Chelsea Health Center, he says, “reminds me of my family doctor’s shop.”
It was Dr. Sargent’s own Underhill family physician, the late Dr. Raymond Towne, who encouraged a then-young Sargent to attend medical school.
He did just that.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont in 1981 and went on to attend the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, Maine, earning his doctoral degree in osteopathic medicine in 1985.
His internship and residency in family medicine were at the Naval Hospital Pensacola in Florida, he is certified by the American Board of Family Practice and is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
He joined the U.S. Navy as a hospital corpsman, or enlisted medical specialist, in 1974.
“I was a Vermont kid and wanted to see the world,” he says. (Now, he notes, “I’m a native Vermonter glad to be back in the state.”)
He was in the U.S. Navy Ready Reserve during his years in college and medical school, and until now spent his career treating primarily Marines and their families in the United States and beyond.
He started off as a flight surgeon for the NavalHospital Cherry Point-2nd Marine Aircraft Wing and went on to work at naval hospitals in Florida, Alaska, North Carolina, Spain and even spent a year in Iraq in 2005.
He’s had a variety of positions from family physician to department head to special staff officer to the commanding general of the 2nd Marine Division, a position he held until he retired from the military in 2006.
Since retiring from active duty, he’s worked as a contracted civilian providing outpatient family care and teaching medical students, as fellow osteopath Dr. Borie did for him two decades before.
Now happily back in the state, Dr. Sargent and his wife Tanya – a fellow Vermont native – are living in Randolph while they build a home on their Washington land. A father of four now grown children, 52-year-old Sargent is looking forward to hunting, fishing, cultivating apples and sugaring on his new property. He also enjoys woodworking and tinkering on his 1956 Ford F-100.
To reach Dr. Sargent or schedule an appointment, call him at the Chelsea Health Center at 685-4400. Patients may also encounter him at the hospital in Randolph. He’s working part-time in the Emergency Department.