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ARCHBOLD.ORG •
WINTER 2014
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made a commitment of $1,000,001. (The extra
dollar pushed the state match from 70 percent to
75 percent.)
Also in 2005, Archbold created the Archbold
Fund for Excellence in Medical Education and
made a five-year, $500,000 commitment for
cash and in-kind gifts. The fund supports the
administrative and program needs associated
with the Thomasville teaching site at Archbold.
A follow-up gift agreement from Archbold
was signed in 2011, providing $262,500 in cash
and gifts-in-kind over five years. That commit-
ment continues the medical center’s support
of the Archbold Fund for Excellence in Medical
Education.
The leadership
Dr. Hehn is an unassuming but enthusiastic
champion of the Thomasville students.
“Dr. Hehn gives us responsibilities and tasks to
encourage and increase our confidence in mak-
ing decisions and taking on the full responsibility
of taking care of a patient,” says then-fourth-year
student Judy Lin, MD. “However, at the root of his
success in teaching medical students is the fact
that he really cares about how each student is
doing.”
Dr. Mel Hartsfield formerly was dean of the
Tallahassee regional campus and, therefore, has
seen this partnership from both sides. When he
stepped down, he assured his successor, distant
cousin Ron Hartsfield, MD, that he could depend
on Dr. Hehn to keep the Thomasville program
running smoothly.
“He’s a hospitalist,” Dr. Mel Hartsfield says of
Dr. Hehn. (See page 8 to learn about hospitalists.)
“He has contact with the students all the time.
That’s an additional benefit for students coming
here.”
Dr. Hehn arranges student credentials and tries
to figure out what the student particularly needs
to learn and, therefore, who the best physician/
teacher might be.
The students
The first three students arrived in 2006 just after
Archbold had set up clinical rotations for them.
“This was a new experience for almost every-
one involved,” alumna Dr. Perkins recalls, “but you
would have thought that they had been doing
2000
FSU College of Medicine established.
2001
First students arrive at main campus.
2003
First regional campuses open in Tallahassee, Pensacola
and Orlando.
2004
Archbold signs affiliation agreement with College of Medicine
to become a teaching site.
2005
Gift agreements establish Thomasville Endowment for
Advancement of Medical Education and Archbold Fund for
Excellence in Medical Education.
2006
Rudy Hehn, MD, selected as Thomasville clerkship
administrator; first College of Medicine students arrive
in Thomasville.
FSU partnership timeline
this for 20 years. If you had an interest in doing
anything, they made it happen. I really got to get
my hands dirty.”
Elving Colon, MD, arrived a year after Perkins,
left for his residency, then came back.
“I got to know the medical community very
well,” says Dr. Colon, who now practices family
medicine at Archbold. “It’s an underserved com-
munity, and I knew they were looking for family
physicians to return. So it was a no-brainer.”
He said Thomasville patients love having stu-
dents care for them because students often have
more time than the attending physician.
The community
As new third-year students come to town, the
community reaches out to them—most notably
through an outdoor party hosted by Theresa and
Joe Brown. Though Theresa Brown downplays
their annual reception, it symbolizes the whole
town’s hospitable approach to our students.
Fourth-year medical student Michael Quinif observes obstetrician-gynecologist
Melissa S. Bruhn, MD, during his OB-GYN rotation at the Shaw Center.
Archbold supporters Joe
and Theresa Brown host an
annual welcome reception
for FSU medical students
who are placed at Archbold
for their third- and fourth-
year rotations.