Canton Repository, June 24, 2008
BY DIANA ROSSETTI, REPOSITORY LIVING SECTION WRITER
For 35 years, his colleagues called him Rapid Robert for the constant high gear in which he operated, bounding up stairways, rarely waiting for the elevator.
After June 30, Dr. Robert B. Miller will be absent from the halls of Aultman Hospital where, for more than 30 years, he served as medical director of the respiratory care department. Most recently, his skills were put to use as medical director of the AcuteCare Specialty Hospital, which opened in 2004.
But Miller, 68, is retiring only from his Aultman practice. He and his wife, Jane, a Realtor, have moved to Mount Pleasant, S.C., where he plans to practice two days weekly in a pulmonary office associated with the Medical College of South Carolina's department of pulmonary and critical care medicine.
"I'm not a golfer, I love to be around young people, residents and fellows and I've spent my whole life doing some sort of teaching," said the soft-spoken Miller, who has commuted between Aultman and his new home near Charleston for the last year. "So I might play just a little golf. I love being on my bicycle. I'm planning to get involved with the Jewish congregation on the board here. And, at the College of Charleston, people my age can go to college free."
Describing himself as "endlessly curious" and an avid reader of history and culture, Miller, a Danville, Ky., native, said that if he had not become a physician, he probably would have pursued a career in anthropology.
During his tenure here, Miller has seen three major changes in pulmonary and critical care technology.
First, patients are living longer and more is being done to preserve their quality of life. Second, Miller said, the availability of respiratory care equipment has burgeoned.
"When I came, we had one very simple respirator, and now we have multiple, quite sophisticated respirators," he explained.
The third change has been a shift to a team approach in patient care encompassing doctors, nurses, physical therapists, dietitians, pharmacists and other health-care professionals.
"Because of the illnesses and the age of patients, I think you need so much more, both in technology and in specialists in their fields," he added.
"Although I lived in Canton, I really lived in Aultman Hospital. Aultman was my family, and I will miss terribly all those members, past and present. Some of the nurses roasted me last week," he added, chuckling. "They are friends. I think that's how medicine has to be, a team approach of colleagues."
