(This week The Columbian-Progress spotlights Dr. Jeffrey Johnson of the Internal Medicine Clinic of Columbia and Marion General Hospital.)
Q: When and where were you born?
A: I was born Oct. 22, 1967, in Memphis, Tenn.
Q: Where did you attend school?
A: I went to high school at Harding Academy in Memphis, but I grew up in Olive Branch. I went to Ole Miss for college.
Q: Where do you work? Tell us about your job/company.
A: I’m the owner of the Internal Medicine Clinic of Columbia as a physician. I see all the patients that need to be seen. I have three nurse practitioners who are also seeing patients so I oversee their work. I sign behind them for lab work and all kinds of things the government requires the physician to sign for now instead of the nurse practitioner. When I’m not at the clinic, I’m across the street at Marion General Hospital seeing patients upstairs. I also work in the emergency room.
Q: What led you to your profession?
A: My dad, Walter, mom, Mary, and me were involved in a really, really bad car accident that should’ve killed both my mom and my dad. I think that’s what got me on track, having that experience of what they went through, seeing how they were treated and the recovery it took got me interested in it. My grandfather had nicknames for all of us, and mine was always “Doc.” It’s something I always wanted to do.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?
A: Taking care of patients. I like to think that each patient is like a family member. I take care of them the way I’d want to be taken care of or the way I’d want my family to be taken care of.
Q: What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
A: Everything about it that has changed recently — the computers, insurance and filling out paperwork. More and more time is spent fighting bureaucracy than taking care of the patient. It’s why a lot of the older physicians are saying “I’ve had enough” and are getting out of it. We’re losing a lot of talented, caring physicians because of it.
Q: What is the most important lesson you have learned in your career?
A: A lot of it has to do with how you treat people. In my eyes and the way I’ve always tried to do it is to treat everyone like they are a part of my family. I think if you treat people right, they respect you and want to come back and see you.
Q: What was your first job?
A: I had a job cutting the cemetery.
Q: Who are the people who have been most influential in your life?
A: Of course my family. Growing up we had a very close-knit family with my grandparents, five kids and 11 cousins, and we were always together. Once I got here in Columbia, Dr. Bryan McCraw, who was the owner and founder of the clinic, and I meshed really well. He taught me a lot.
Q: What is your spouse’s name?
A: Tami.
Q: Do you have children?
A: We have two daughters. Anna Caitlyn is 22, and Alleigh is 15.
Q: If you could have anything for your last meal on earth, what would it be?
A: I’ve always loved steak so a big ole juicy ribeye.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
A: I want to go to Alaska. I’ve always heard how it’s beautiful and everything. My daughter traveled abroad to Italy last year and showed me pictures of it so I’d like to go see it probably.
Q: What hobbies do you like to do in your spare time?
A: Mostly when I get home it’s about doing something with the wife and kids. Usually I’m doing something around the house or running to Hattiesburg or going downtown with them.
Q: What do you enjoy about Columbia and Marion County?
A: I moved down here from Olive Branch and knew just a handful of people. I’ve been here 23 years and had to be hospitalized in July with COVID, and the outpouring of support from the community says people have accepted me as an outsider, taken me in and consider me part of the family. When I grew up, Olive Branch was smaller than Columbia, but now it’s closer to Hattiesburg and been listed as one of the fastest growing places. It kind of lost that small-town feeling, and that’s what I really enjoy. It’s become my hometown.
Q: Where do you go to church?
A: I go to Kensington Woods Church of Christ over in Hattiesburg.
Q: If you could have lunch with anyone from your life or history, who would it be and why?
A: I’ve lost both of my grandparents on both sides so it’s not one particular person I’d want to sit down with, but I’d like to have a meal with the whole group again. Everybody used to get together all the time and eat together. My grandmother could do all that good country cooking, and we would get together on holidays. I miss having all that.
Q: What moment in your life has had the biggest impact on who you are today?
A: That wreck probably played a big factor in it because both my parents were in the hospital for almost a month, while I just had a concussion. That was back in the 1970s when people didn’t survive things like that. Meeting my wife is probably the next biggest thing.
Q: What is one thing you want to do that you’ve never tried?
A: My entire life it’s been work, work, work. When I was sick in the hospital and had to take off, that was the longest time I’ve ever had off in my life. One day when things slow down, I’d like to take a long trip and see the country.
Q: Using one word for each, what are your top three defining characteristics?
A: Compassionate, dependable and hard-working.
Q: How would you like to be remembered?
A: Hopefully people will say that I was a compassionate, caring physician that tried to take care of patients and treat them like family.
—Joshua Campbell
