Dr. Judith A. Fisher announced that she will retire in September after 10 years as a family-practice physician on the staff of the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.
Dr. Fisher, a 1978 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and a longtime Island summer visitor, realized what she described at the time as a long-deferred dream, and in December 2006 moved to the Vineyard and joined the hospital staff.
“It has been an honor and privilege to serve the Martha’s Vineyard community as a family medicine physician,” Dr. Fisher said in a letter dated April 23 to her patients. “I treasure the time I spent with each of you, your families, and your friends these past 10 years. I am writing to you now as it is my intention to retire from my hospital practice as of mid-September.”
She said she would work with hospital administrators to recruit a replacement. “My staff are planning to stay on and help you with the transition of your medical care to a new physician,” she said. “Let me take this time to thank them for their wonderful years of very thoughtful, generous, and dedicated service. Your care would not have been what it is without them. I care very deeply about each of you and your health. This has been a very hard decision because of you. I want to thank you for entrusting your care to me and believing in my way of doing things, which I understand is not always ‘the way things are done.’”
In a separate letter, Tim Walsh, Martha’s Vineyard Hospital CEO, thanked Dr. Fisher for her 10 years “of dedicated service as a family-practice physician.”
“She has been an outstanding member of our primary-care practice physician team,” Mr. Walsh said.
