COOPERSTOWN – Bassett physicians Drs. Grace and Tom Holmes have retired after providing 25 years of health care to families in the Norwich community. What began as a small private practice in 1987 with the husband and wife team, expanded in 1995 to become part of Bassett Healthcare Network and is currently one of the largest rural health centers in the network.
Part of the vision that the Holmes’ had for the health center included the mentoring of new young physicians. Over the years, numerous medical students from SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse completed part of their training in Norwich. Dr. Jennifer O’Reilly was one of those students who was mentored at the Norwich Health Center and is now back as a full-time partner in the practice.
Drs. Grace and Tom Holmes kept a “pulse” on the medical needs for the community and frequently advocated for and received new specialty services that their patients in Norwich needed. “Tom and Grace have set the standard for patient-centered care,” notes Scott Cohen, M.D., M.B.A., health center medical director. “We have appreciated their mentoring and will miss them greatly.”
The Holmes, who live in Norwich, plan on moving to a rural community of Putaruru on the North Island of New Zealand to work, for the next year, along with a small group of family physicians.
“Putaruru appears in many ways to be a community quite like Norwich, surrounded by green fields and forested hills, with a lot of dairy farms and forest industry, similar to Chenango County,” said Dr. Tom Holmes. “We are fortunate to be at a point in our personal and professional lives where this has become possible.”
There are currently six practitioners at Bassett’s Norwich Health Center: medical director Scott Cohen, M.D.; Jennifer O’Reilly, M.D.; Jennifer Congdon, M.D.; nurse practitioners Tiffany Rivenburgh, F.N.P. and Tracy Mahar, F.N.P.; and physician assistant Tara Niedzialkowski, P.A. A variety of other Bassett subspecialists also care for patients at the center, located at 55 Calvary Drive.