Chief Medical Officer Brings Optimism, Drive to BayCare Facility
by TERESA SCHIFFER
BayCare’s Winter Haven Hospital welcomed new Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Davidyock on May 31. Davidyock is board-certified in internal medicine and hails from eastern Pennsylvania, near Lehigh Valley in the Philadelphia region, where he had been practicing medicine for about 15 years. Three years ago, he made the choice to transplant his family from the North to sunny Central Florida, where he accepted a position as Associate Chief Medical Officer for the Central Florida Division at AdventHealth Orlando.
The decision to relocate to Florida probably came as a surprise to the doctor’s family, as throughout his life he had been quite attached to his hometown, intending to spend his career serving that community. Pennsylvania is where he attended medical school, did his residency, and even started a hospitalist company in 2007 when the concept was just beginning to be utilized within the medical community.
Davidyock saw an opportunity to take his career to the next level and broaden his reach when he noticed the open position at AdventHealth Orlando. He recognized that Central Florida has a high demand for quality health care, and he seized the opportunity to provide his services.
“Every day is a learning experience, as long as you’re approaching every day with a positive attitude and eyes wide open to use the knowledge that you have to improve things,” Davidyock says when asked what he learned during his time working in Orlando.
He intends to bring that same attitude of inquisitive optimism to Winter Haven Hospital, where his goal is to provide each patient with the best possible medical care.
“I know that my parents and family members will always visit or reside in Florida, and I know that, as humans, we will all eventually have a need for a hospital. At that point in time, I want them to know that when they come to Winter Haven, they’re getting the best care that they can get, and not just because they’re related to the new CMO here, but because they’re treated that way regardless of who they are,” Davidyock says.
“It doesn’t matter who walks through the door. I don’t need to know you, because I know that you’re going to get the best care that’s possible here and be treated kindly, with compassion and the respect that we all deserve to be treated with.”
Although the COVID-19 pandemic made traveling back to Pennsylvania to visit family with his wife and two children virtually impossible, he acknowledges the major impact that the pandemic has had on the medical community.
“I think COVID has really brought to the forefront what it means to practice and be wise,” he says.
“We’ve recognized for years now that healthcare has shifted a lot from productivity to value and quality. I think that that shift has been an extremely important avenue of what we do because it allows physicians to really embrace that role and care for their patients efficiently with the highest quality and clinical expertise that they can.”
Davidyock says COVID pushed the medical community to new lengths.
“COVID has really come in hard and fast and pushed us to do things that we needed to do. I look at it as being wise.. … We need to be innovative, and we have to be agile.”