Physician Profile:
Tracy Barefield, M.D. of CPC-North Augusta
When Tracy Salenger
Barefield first came to Augusta in 1987, it was to work as a dietitian on
staff at Humana (Doctors) Hospital Burn Center. When she returned to the
Garden City a few years later, it was as a first-year medical student at the
Medical College of Georgia. Toward the end of her formal medical education
when it was time to consider her next move, she and her husband, Mickey,
chose not to move at all. In 1996, they decided to call Augusta home and she
joined the staff of the Center for Primary Care as the first female
physician in the practice group.
Dr. Barefield completed her undergraduate work at Florida State University
in Tallahassee and graduate work at Florida International University in
Miami. After working at the Burn Center for only a brief time, she was
offered a position as Chief Clinical Dietitian for Marriott Food Services in
Carrollton, Georgia. During her 2½ years in Carrollton, one of the
physicians she worked with recognized her potential and encouraged her to
pursue her interest in medicine. Spurred on by his support, she applied to
the Medical College of Georgia, was accepted, and returned to Augusta to
receive her medical training and launch a career as a family physician.
At
the conclusion of her residency, Dr. Barefield was expecting her first child
and trying to decide what career move to make. A medical school acquaintance
of hers, Dr. Edwin Scott, mentioned that Dr. Paul Fischer had started a new
practice and was recruiting physicians. She was intrigued by the prospect of
staying in Augusta. She and Mickey agreed that starting a new job, moving to
a new place, and having a baby would be too much for their young family to
take on all at once. But she kept thinking, Who would recruit a pregnant
woman? As it turns out, Dr. Fischer did not consider her impending
motherhood a hindrance. In 1996, she became the first female doctor on the
staff of the Center for Primary Care. She is now medical director for the
South Augusta office.
Of all the specialties she was exposed to as a resident, she was drawn most
to family medicine. “I loved all the rotations I did, but in family
medicine, I saw the full range of people. There was so much variety – always
something different,” she says. “Family medicine was the most challenging.”
Dr. Barefield believes her interest and background in women’s health is a
strength she brings to CPC. “Throughout medical school and my residency, I
was one of the few who enjoyed obstetrics and gynecology,” she says. This
allowed her to work with many female patients and, combined with her
background in nutrition, may have fostered her passion for women’s health
issues. Being the only woman on staff at their South Augusta office, she
believes, has opened the door to many female patients who may not have
wanted to see a male doctor. “I am proud to be the first woman in this
practice,” she says.
One factor in Dr. Barefield’s decision to live and work here was her
husband’s ties to the community, but it was work – not Mickey – that brought
her here to begin with. They did not even know each other until she was a
second-year medical student, when they met by chance. Tracy and her
girlfriends had planned to meet – sans men – for girls’ night out at the
Sheraton Hotel’s Saints lounge. Tracy was prompt. Her friends were not.
Enter Mickey.
Mickey and Tracy
If it’s true what people say about opposites attracting, that must have been
the force that brought them together. She was a city girl, born in New York
and raised in Fort Lauderdale. Having grown up on a farm, he was entrenched
in the ways of the rural South. Not only of different realms of experience,
they were also of different faiths. Coincidence put them at the same place
at the same time, and fate took it from there.
“He came over and asked me to dance and we hit it off immediately,” she
recalls. By the time her friends arrived, she was thanking them for being
late. Tracy and Mickey have now been married for 7 years and have two sons,
James, 4, and Jacob, 2.
Instead of being an obstacle, Tracy and Mickey’s differences have enriched
their life together as a couple. Thanks to Mickey, she now can drive a
tractor and shoot a gun, two activities they enjoy together when visiting
the family farm where Mickey grew up. “We’ve both broadened each other’s
horizons to different areas,” she says. Like Aesop’s town mouse and country
mouse, “We are from different backgrounds but we mesh so well together.”
Of all the new interests Dr. Barefield’s husband introduced her to, shooting
is probably her favorite. “We used to set up targets at the farm and we both
enjoy trap and skeet shooting,” she says. “It allows me to get my
aggressions out without hurting anyone.” She is quick to point out that
inanimate objects are the only targets she’s interested in hitting. “I don’t
want to shoot anything living unless it’s going to try to shoot me first,”
she says.
Her other interests are more on the domestic side. Dr. Barefield loves to
sew and says she’s a dynamite cook. Her office, which is sprinkled from top
to bottom with family pictures, is testament to her passion for photos and
family. She also enjoys scrapbooking, which allows her to organize her
family’s pictorial history in a fun, creative way.
They are both close to their families. Dr. Barefield’s parents, Ellen and
Arthur Salenger, live in Ocala, Florida, and visit as often as once a month.
Her sister, Susie, just moved from Ocala to Augusta so she could be closer
to the Barefields. Mickey’s mother lives in Millen and his grandmother lives
in Waynesboro.
When she’s not busy being a physician, Dr. Barefield enjoys spending time
with Mickey and their two sons. “We have lots of fun together doing things
as a family,” she says. She gives her husband much of the credit for their
balanced family life. When she was pregnant with her second son, she and
Mickey made an important decision. In what they jointly considered to be the
best interest of the children, Mickey decided to leave his job as a plant
equipment operator at Plant Vogtle so he could stay home and care for James
and Jacob.
Not only has this move been beneficial for their children, it has also
allowed Dr. Barefield to devote the time and energy her job demands. “It has
enabled me to do what I need to do in my work – seeing patients, paperwork,
doing rounds,” she says. How has their decision affected her husband?
Besides the obvious perk of being with his sons, the biggest endorsement
came from coworkers and friends. “Everyone has a great deal of respect for
Mickey in this decision,” she says. Instead of giving him a hard time, “the
guys at work were jealous!”
Perhaps Dr. Barefield’s greatest gift to her family, friends, coworkers and
patients is her balanced approach to life. It is a philosophy that extends
naturally into everything she does at the Center for Primary Care and brings
to her practice of medicine a precious balance of professionalism and
compassion
Dr. Barefield can be reached via email at
tbfield@cpcfp.com.
