Dr. William King
Interview with: Dr. William King
Interview by: Lauren Kerr (phone interview)
Date: March 2, 2005
Transcribed by: Lauren Kerr
LK: Ok, are you aware that you’re being recorded?
WK: Yes.
LK: Ok. Alright, since you’ve sent me so much good information already, I would like to hear maybe a little more about your experience as a physician. I’m noticing that you were the CEO or the medical director of the PHS hospital. Can you explain to me a little bit about what a PH hospital is?
WK: The public service hospitals were a division under Health and Human Services, which now has a new name in the government, CMS or something, what used to be HEW a long time ago. And they provided healthcare services to American Indians, Alaskan Eskimos, American seamen injured on the job. The Public Health Services founded 1887 or some point back there and for roughly 102 years they functioned as healthcare for specific, designated groups. They also provided healthcare services to the military when they chose to come to our hospital rather than a DOD hospital. So basically it’s a uniformed services parallel to the Department of Defense but you know we carry syringes and stethoscopes instead of weapons.
LK: Oh, very interesting. So you were actually employed by the military, or the federal government?
WK: Federal government, yes.
LK: Ok, great, that’s very interesting, I didn’t know anything about that.
WK: I have a handbook of the public health services you can read if you need some bedtime reading I could always provide you if that’s of interest to you.
LK: That’s very much of an interest to me. Are there still PHS hospitals around?
WK: In 1981 the Public Health Service decided to shut down the division of hospitals, and there were political reasons as well as financial reasons. So at that time they closed eight hospitals and 27 clinics which was all that was left of that division of hospitals at that time. We had hospitals in all the port cities around the country, probably, I don’t know, but there were several dozen hospitals around the country, Seattle, San Francisco, New Orleans, Norfolk, VA, New York City, to name a few. And so that, you know, that is where I spent 13 years of my career, with the Public Health Service.
LK: Wow, that’s fascinating, I didn’t know anything about that.
WK: At that point in time, they shut down the division hospitals, they really didn’t have clinical positions available. And so I went to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Houston, and worked there from ’81 to ’97.
LK: Ok, and you are currently an adjunct there, is that correct?
WK: I’m sorry?
LK: You are currently an adjunct professor there?
WK: Yes, I’m semi-retired. I still have a faculty position, I do some work with the medical students and with the anesthesia residents, you know, ad hoc, really. And I’m very involved with boys and girls Clubs here in Galveston County. That’s in the resume someplace.
LK: Yes, I did notice that. Could you tell me a little more about your involvement with HMF?
WK: As, when I came in originally, I was a medical student at Howard. You know, when I finished my medical degree I finished my internship in Seattle at their hospital, my anesthesia residence in New York City at the Public Health Hospital. I then went back to Seattle as a staff anesthesiologist, eventually became the director of the anesthesia surgery department, was promoted from there, not promoted, given additional duties I guess, I was associate director of hospital services, which is how I started moving into the administrative aspects of the Public Health Service. They had an opening for a hospital director here in Nassau Bay, and they offered it to me, with reluctance I took that, I accepted it, and that’s how I came to TX.
LK: Ok, so was that for that specific position?
WK: Yes. So as hospital director I was responsible for the hospital in Nassau Bay, now St. John’s Hospital, but at that point in time it was U. S Public Health Service Hospital. We did medical surgical care.
LK: Ok, and did you mention, am I remembering correctly before, you said something about being the first African-American hospital director?
WK: As far as I know I am the only African American who held the position of hospital director with the Public Health Service.
LK: Ok, for the entire thing.
WK: My involvement then goes back into the ‘60s, and at least in the last 30 years there was not one.
LK: Ok, very significant. On your resume it says that you were president of the UTMB Minority faculty council. Could you tell me a little about that?
WK: Ok, at the University of Texas Medical Branch, there were, numbers are difficult to come by, but there were probably ten to twelve physicians, you know a number of Mexican Americans, there were Ph.D.s, and there were nurses in the nursing school of African-American descent, and we felt that we needed a support group that was a collective voice. We established the minority faculty council advisory to the dean and the vice president and that organization still exists today on the campus. They’ve changed the name, they’ve changed the mission slightly, they are still there and basically carrying the voice of minority faculty.
LK: Ok, fantastic. You also mention in your narrative [see attached] that you serve as a resource to medical students?
WK: I was the faculty advisor for the student National Medical Association while I was there and frequently students who were in trouble or confused or whatever would seek out someone they could talk to and I was one of probably four physicians who they came to when there was a problem. In some cases the problem was of their own making with the results thereof but on a couple occasions there was a breakdown in communication and we were able to salvage the career of some of the students who might otherwise have not been able to stay in school and get their degree.
LK: Can you recount any specific experiences you have as an African American practicing medicine in Houston, in the Houston area that stand out to you? Any maybe difficulties you might have had?
WK: I tend to look at difficulties as challenges. And so I find that, you know people ask me, did you have a hard time, did folks mess with you, and I say, I had interaction with people, some good, some bad, you work through them. I can’t think of a specific situation, you know I’m sure there was probably discrimination that sort of stuff, but God will help me with it and God will help me work through it. So you know I don’t focus on that aspect of the confusion. Some things are legitimate people problems, some things are ethnic problems. I tend to deal with all of them as people problems. And that worked out quite well.
LK: Great philosophy. Well it looks as though you did quite a bit, for example the Minority Faculty Council, to create a voice when there needed to be one. That’s great. Let’s see. Why is it that you decided to join HMF? How is it that you found out about it, what attracted you to it?
WK: Well I was at Howard University at Washington, D. C., the war was in progress, the draft board had called and classified me as one [intending] graduation. I really was not supportive of the war and was looking for opportunities not to go, although once I graduated there would be no opportunities not to go. By joining the Public Health Service, I became a member of a uniformed service which is equivalent to any of the other uniformed services, therefore I wasn’t subject to the military service when I was in the uniformed services. I don’t consider that running away, I consider that finding a productive way to use my talents and skills.
LK: Exactly. Great.
WK: It was a great career for 13 years, but once they shut down the hospital system, when they offered me administrative jobs completely, I didn’t feel that with my board certification in anesthesia I wanted to sit behind a desk in some administrative program. So we parted company at that point and a position in the department of anesthesiology department opened up in Galveston and I was hired there.
LK: Ok, can you tell me about the center of counseling? You were a member of the medical advisory board for the Center of Counseling.
WK: That was a psychological counseling firm and I was just a consultant for them. That really was not an active part of anything, I didn’t do a lot, I had my name on their rolls.
LK: Ok. Let’s see, you’re obviously very involved in the community, with Boys and Girls Clubs, the tutoring with Macedonia Baptist Church, why is it important to you, as a physician, to be involved in the community in other ways?
WK: As a physician, and as a citizen, we have an obligation to make sure that the generation behind us is adequately prepared. And I feel very strongly that we can invest before they are 10 years old, to give them a positive direction in life, or we will have to, when they are 20 years old, restrain them, incarcerating them, because they did not get proper direction. I feel that it’s a better investment to do it up front than to spend it later building them prisons.
LK: I would agree. Well, you say you’ve tried to be a role model and it sounds to me you’ve done a great job. Do you have, could you tell me about your research activities a little bit?
WK: I did basically one major research project that was published in anesthesiology. As a physician in the operating room I frequently was required to administer transfusions. And there is some question about the concentration of calcium in the blood and the anti-coagulants they use to keep it from coagulating while it’s in a blood bank. In that context, the question was if you dilute the blood in order for it to flow, with a solution containing calcium, what’s the risk that the blood will clot. And I did a laboratory, not a clinical study, that shows if it’s mixed carefully and correctly, with… solution, which is a specific IV solution, that the risks are minimal. You know I had a chemist doing the calculations with me and we showed that the blood could handle a limited amount of calcium in the [diluent] fluid.
LK: Fascinating. So this was eventually published, you said?
WK: It was published. And we have a disclaimer saying that if you can get normal saline so that you’re not worried about calcium, that’s better, but if you’re in a situation where you have calcium containing solution hanging there, if you do it carefully and correctly, you don’t incur additional risks. Most people choose not to, you know, crawl out on that limb. But because of my involvement in anesthesia, and that fact that we did it occasionally, I felt that we needed to at least establish the fact that there is a margin of safety there.
LK: Ok, I see. Makes sense, that’s fascinating. Is there anything else you would like to add? About your experiences as a physician in Houston.
WK: As a physician in general, medicine has changed a lot in the past 20 years. And the thing that I have found most challenging is continuing to maintain the doctor/patient relationship in the face of all the external constraints, primarily economic, that seem to be driving medicine now. And so, when my son was considering going to medical school, my counsel to him was if you’re there because you want to help people, and do something positive for humankind, medicine is the place to go. If it’s an economic system, forget it, that has all changed. People can make a very adequate living there, but the pressures and constraints in which they do that are completely different than they were back in ’63-’68 when I was in medical school and when I came out of the practice. So if you’re motivation is right, this is still a good career for you. If you’re looking for economics, if you’re looking for community stature that positions were held in long ago, that’s all changed.
LK: see. Alright, well I have no further questions, is there anything else you would like to add?
WK: Not specifically. I wish you well on your project and look forward to seeing it when it is complete.
LK: And we will keep in touch and I will notify you when the exhibit is complete… I thank you so much for your time.
WK: You’re welcome.
Next Interview: Dr. Eula Perry