ALUMNI NEWS

Labor of Love

By Kathy Boeckmann

Michael LeFevre could have just as easily made his mark in the world holding a trumpet instead of a stethoscope.

In high school, he excelled as a trumpet player. In fact, during his senior year, LeFevre was selected to play in McDonald's All Star Band, an honor bestowed on just two students in the state each year. But while music was important to him, he wasn’t sure he wanted the trumpet to be the focus of his life.

Instead, following his natural abilities in math, LeFevre enrolled at the University of Missouri-Columbia as an engineering student.

“I liked engineering from the start,” LeFevre said. “It taught me how to think, and how to process, analyze, and use information. But as a job, it felt isolated. It didn't have the people-to-people orientation I thought I needed in my daily work.”

A job in medicine, on the other hand, was more people-oriented.  This realization prompted LeFevre to investigate life as a doctor. He liked what he learned and decided to pursue a career in medicine after earning his engineering degree.

When he entered medical school, his goal was to be a pediatrician, but that was before he rotated through obstetrics, internal medicine and surgery. Every rotation was a positive experience for him. From childbirth to well baby checks to ear infections to complex medical issues to chronic care, LeFevre liked everything and wanted to do it all. He also wanted an opportunity to develop strong and lasting relationships with patients.

“Within the context of the family life cycle, the points in time when I think you forge the most meaningful relationships with patients and families are birth and death…obstetrics and geriatrics are similar in this way,” he said. “And that said to me 'you have to become a family doctor.”

LeFevre followed this instinct. After finishing medical school in 1979 and a family practice residency 1982 — both at MU — he enrolled in MU's family medicine fellowship program.

“In the back of my mind I had the notion I'd end up in academics; I wanted to teach,” he says. And by 1984, when LeFevre had completed the fellowship, it became clear to him that academic medicine was where he belonged.

“The die was cast at that point,” he said. “I stayed at MU and joined the family medicine faculty for the same reason I stayed here for residency and fellowship. This was — and still is — the best place to be.”

For the past 20 years, LeFevre's job has been divided between patient care and “other.” “Direct patient care has always occupied 30-50 percent of my time,” he said. “My non-patient duties have evolved and shifted according to the needs of the department. Initially they focused on research and teaching. Administrative responsibilities consume most of my non-clinic time today.”

Currently, LeFevre holds two major administrative positions. As medical director of MU Family and Community Medicine, he has oversight of the department's six practices and 80,000 visits.

“I’m the guy who worries about money,” he said. “I pay close attention to the patient care our clinics provide — the business side and the quality side.”

His attention to quality has paid off. The department is ranked second in the United States in the U.S. News and World Report’s 2006 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools." Eight MU family physicians have been named among the "Best Doctors in America," an honor that just 4 percent of all U.S. doctors received from their peers. LeFevre himself was chosen to serve on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel comprised of 15 experts to evaluate and recommend preventive care in the U.S.

Research topics in the department include reducing problem drinking, improving quality of care for nursing home residents, eliminating smoking by pregnant women and their spouses and enhancing health communications with Hispanic women who have breast cancer. Faculty members have partnered with the state to improve rural health infrastructure and to improve the care for at-risk populations of abused children, dying persons and the elderly, and 140 family medicine residency graduates have been placed in areas of need in Missouri.

LeFevre also directs the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Project. This complicated assignment, initiated in 2001, has as its goal to convert the entire patient care system of MU Health Care — inpatient and clinics — from paper to a totally electronic system. A project of this magnitude requires time, patience and leadership.

“I truly believe that patient care will be better, providers' jobs will be easier, and the financial bottom line of the institution will improve once the EMR system is in place,” LeFevre said. “I couldn’t head this project without that vision.”

But as important as this project is, there’s nothing more exciting to LeFevre than patient care. He loves being a doctor and is unaffected by the discontent expressed by some in the medical profession.

“There are those who feel like government and HMOs are looking over our shoulders, they complain about how hard it is to get paid or how we're not the independent practitioners we used to be,” he said. “But when I get in that exam room with a patient, it doesn’t feel any different than it used to — it never has.”

“The rewards of patient care are immediate and direct. When I'm able to bring my knowledge and skills to a setting where there’s a need or when I know a patient's life is better because I was there — that’s a real kick for me.”

“Patients love Dr. LeFevre,” said Jinnie Deakins, LPN, who has been leFevre's nurse at Green Meadows Clinic for 20 years. “When he enters a room, his calm and reassuring style immediately puts them at ease. He's knowledgeable, focused, and genuine, a good doctor in every way.”

Checkup time is fun for Jake, 8, and his brother, Max, 2. “When Dr. LeFevre comes in the room, he'll get on the floor and play with the boys,” said Michell Enlow, their mother. “They aren’t afraid of him, so doctor visits are never stressful for any of us.”

LeFevre relates well with patients because he treats them with respect — the same way he treats nurses, Deakins said. “Dr. LeFevre and I are a team. He trusts me and values my contributions as a health care provider. I feel fortunate to work with such a good and caring doctor.”

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Last Update: November 15, 2007