{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/0p0wp9vz8h/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Dr. Ernie Chaney"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/246/original/CenterForHistoryFamilyMedicine_2c_RGB.png?1773344256","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Chaney talks about his upbringing in small town Kansas and his experiences in his early life that led him towards a career in Family Medicine after the Navy. In his early years of college and after, he met a friend named Herb Doubek and the two of them opened a clinic together in Belleville, KS after residency in Tacoma, WA. After they left the practice and moved on, Ernie became affiliated with The American Academy of Family Physicians for many years, serving many different roles. During this time he closes his own practice in Belleville to move to Wichita for an opportunity as the Program Director at St. John’s hospital which was located near his extended family at the time. He kept this position for 14 years and then retired from the medical field and medical academics. \u003c/p\u003e (summary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis item is protected by U.S. copyright and related rights. It is being made available by the Center for the History of Family Medicine as its rights-holder for noncommercial use, including sharing and adapting the work. No permission is required for noncommercial use so long as attribution is provided. All other uses require permission from the Center for the History of Family Medicine.  Disclaimer:  The views presented in this broadcast are the speaker’s own and do not represent those of CHFM or the AAFP Foundation. The information presented is for general, educational, or entertainment purposes and should not be considered legal, health, financial, or other advice. \u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2013-07-12 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Oral History"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Sandy Panther (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["audio file"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["American Academy of Family Physicians","Kansas","Family Medicine","family physician"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["Ernie Chaney M.D. (personal name)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Chaney talks about his upbringing in small town Kansas and his experiences in his early life that led him towards a career in Family Medicine after the Navy. In his early years of college and after, he met a friend named Herb Doubek and the two of them opened a clinic together in Belleville, KS after residency in Tacoma, WA. After they left the practice and moved on, Ernie became affiliated with The American Academy of Family Physicians for many years, serving many different roles. During this time he closes his own practice in Belleville to move to Wichita for an opportunity as the Program Director at St. John\u0026rsquo;s hospital which was located near his extended family at the time. He kept this position for 14 years and then retired from the medical field and medical academics.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis item is protected by U.S. copyright and related rights. It is being made available by the Center for the History of Family Medicine as its rights-holder for noncommercial use, including sharing and adapting the work. No permission is required for noncommercial use so long as attribution is provided. All other uses require permission from the Center for the History of Family Medicine. \u0026nbsp;Disclaimer: \u0026nbsp;The views presented in this broadcast are the speaker\u0026rsquo;s own and do not represent those of CHFM or the AAFP Foundation. The information presented is for general, educational, or entertainment purposes and should not be considered legal, health, financial, or other advice.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Center for the History of Family Medicine"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Center for the History of Family Medicine"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/246/original/CenterForHistoryFamilyMedicine_2c_RGB.png?1773344256","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/162030/file/294261","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 2 - ChaneyErnie_01_Access.mp3"]},"duration":2960.4447,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/162030/file/294261/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/162030/file/294261/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/294/261/original/ChaneyErnie_01_Access.mp3?1759948089","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":2960.4447,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/162030/file/294261","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/162030/file/294261/transcript/85185","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Dr. Ernie Chaney interview transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/162030/file/294261/transcript/85185/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Dr. Chaney, if you would start with where you were born, the names of your parents, any siblings you have. And then go through your early childhood years, grade school, high school. And go as far as you want, then I will continue with questions.\n\nI was born in Frontenac, Kansas. It’s a little suburban Italian village next to Pittsburg, Kansas in southeast Kansas. My mother’s name was Louise Johnson and my father’s name was Albert Johnson. I grew up in southeast Kansas. My parents divorced when I was about three, I believe. My older brother went to live with my father who lived in Michigan and my other brother, Jim, was raised in Pittsburg with me. Bob, the older brother, was eight years older. My middle brother was six years older than I. Went to school in Pittsburg, Kansas and had a great high school experience. Played a little football. Mostly on the end of the bench but did enjoy it. And my senior year my mother remarried to Tom Chaney who was my father until I met my biological father some twenty years later. They moved to Wellington, Kansas my senior year and I lived with my [?] who was probably in his twenties. So I had kind of free reign to do whatever I wanted to do and had a good time in my senior year. After that I joined the Navy. My two brothers were killed in WWII. My older brother Bob was living in Michigan and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. He joined just about the time that Britain was fighting back and was a gunner on the bomber that bombed the industrial area of Germany. He was shot down over the Netherlands following the Allied soldiers in a cemetery in Amsterdam. My other brother joined the U.S. Navy and was a night bomber pilot. He was in his last mission after bombing Okinawa. He landed back in his carrier called the Bunker Hill and they were being debriefed when he was hit by a Kamikaze and was buried at sea. Later on our lives, we had made a trip to Holland and went to my older brother’s gravesite. And the Dutch were a little different than some of the Allies and were very thankful for all the help the Americans gave and fathered [?] the dead by keeping their cemetery just a beautiful spot. We had a picture of my brother encased in plastic and put it there. Two years later one of my grandchildren went to the cemetery and that picture was still there. My other brother was buried at sea but we had a ceremony for him. And there were areas in the Arlington Cemetery that aren’t receptive to putting caskets on swales. It’s a little muddy or whatever. So they do put markers up and he has a marker there. All of our family went there for a service in Arlington Cemetery which is quite emotional.\n\nAnyway, I grew up in southeast Kansas. And during the WWII there were five brothers, and I can’t remember their name right now.\n\nSullivan?\n\nSullivan, that’s it. They were all killed and there was a law that said if you were sole survivor then you can’t be drafted, you can’t join the service without your parents’ permission. So I had to talk long and hard to get my parents to let me join the Navy. But I joined the Navy and spent two years in the Navy as a corpsman. When I grew up I had an aunt who worked for a physician and I always thought of him as an uncle. He actually took my tonsils out with my aunt acting as the anesthesiologist and did it in his office, which you can imagine that. But I survived. But I would work in his office mopping the floors and putting things up and looking at medical books. And I think that’s what stirred me to think about being a physician. And I never varied from that. I’d always had that in my mind and went forward with it. After I got out of the Navy I actually enrolled in the University of Kansas. That was probably one of the shortest histories as a student. I remember going to Hoch Auditorium. At that time it’s where they played basketball. I walked in there, it was full. And instead of a professor they had a recording playing which was the lecture. I didn’t think that was too swift. So I left and went to a local student bar and had a beer. Then I went to another class which was an algebra class. The professor said “Start at page four” and I couldn’t even read page one. So I returned to the other spot and thought about it for a week and then went home. I got a job working for the Rock Island Railroad in laying track which is a really difficult physical thing to do. I did that for about a week and then decided that I would either do something else or die because I wasn’t built to do this kind of work. So my mother, bless her heart, encouraged me to go back to college and I did. I went to Wichita State for undergraduate work. During that time I met the most beautiful, wonderful woman in the world and she married me. And I really buckled down to study and really did a good job academically and was in honors. At that time, when I was a junior they had a need for physicians. So they would accept your first year of medical school as your last year in undergraduate. So I was accepted in medical school at the University of Kansas. And Margie and I moved there and she got a job. And I had a little bit left in my G.I. Bill, so we were off in our new adventure, the first year at the campus in Lawrence. And after that three years at the university in Kansas City, Missouri. So that’s the beginning. I had a fun childhood and a wonderful marriage and the beginning of an education. Medical school was pretty difficult the first year. There was a lot of memorization and a lot of bookwork. I can remember we had an apartment in Lawrence and we lived on the third floor. And the second floor, another couple lived. And the landing in between had a refrigerator and we shared that. We had one bedroom and a kitchen and I think that was about it. So Margie would go in the kitchen and read or something while I was studying. And I can also remember that football and basketball, all of the wives, there were about four or five of us that were ex-military that were in medical school. So our wives would go to the stadium early and go to the football or basketball arena early. And we would study as long as we could, then we would go to the basketball games. So it was a fun time.           \n\nGraduated from medical school and had met a man named Herb Doubek. And he and I interned in Tacoma, Washington, had a rotating internship. At that time we didn’t have a specialty in family medicine. But I always knew what I wanted to do and so did Herb. The University of Kansas had a preceptor program at that time where sophomore or junior medical students went out and spent time with practicing physicians. I went to a little town in north central Kansas called Belleville with a doctor named Beiderwell. And that just further increased my interest in family medicine. Herb too. So when we finished our internship, we both decided to go to Belleville to practice medicine and we did start a practice there. I can remember going in the bankers. We found a building we could rent. The gentleman that owned the building said “I’ll charge you half rent for six months and then the full rent the next six months and let you get started.” We saw the banker and told him we needed to borrow some money because neither one of us had any money. He said “How much do you need?” I think we said probably about $5,000. He said okay, just sign this. So we did and started our practice there.\n\nSo now you’re in Bellville, Kansas. At what point did you start having your children? And can you tell me a little bit about each of them?\n\nWhen I was a junior in medical school Margie and I tried to have her get pregnant so we could start our family. We were unsuccessful. So I can remember, she saw an obstetrician down at the Plaza in Kansas City, which is a pretty high rent area. And he was a very fine gentleman and he would visit with us. He told us about taking your temperature and gave her some different kind of medicines. I was on OB at the time. And I can remember Margie calling saying “My temperature just went up.” So I finished seeing my patient so I could run back to the apartment. It was only about a half block from the medical center. And we were finally successful. Our eldest son was born in June of ’56. We hoped he would be delivered before we graduated and went on our internship. In fact, Margie and I used to walk around campus for blocks and blocks at a time and he finally came on his birthday which was I think about a week or so prior to graduation. She had kind of a difficult delivery. And after graduation then I had to go through an internship in Tacoma, Washington. And in those days people who had a difficult delivery were in the hospital for a period of time, she stayed for about a week, then had an ambulance come and get her and take her to Wellington, Kansas where her parents were. She stayed there while Herb and I packed up our cars and drove to Tacoma, Washington, just a little north of us. Started our internship there. Then maybe five weeks later Margie and Mitchell flew out in a little twin TWA jet. I think it was the first time she had ever flown. We went to Sea-Tac Airport [Seattle-Tacoma Airport]. We had rented a place that the Doubek’s lived on I think the third floor of an apartment. But we were also on the third floor, close to one another. Tacoma was a beautiful spot. Mount Rainier I think is one of the most beautiful mountains in the world. So we could see Mount Rainier daily. We didn’t have screens on the windows. They didn’t have bugs and mosquitoes. And it was a delight. \n\nWe thought we might actually practice there. Both Herb and I wanted to practice together. So we looked at various spots. Went one time to a small town in northern Oregon and looked at a potential. But Margie’s father had a coronary and my parents were getting older. So we said no, we need to get back home. And I think Herb felt the same way. So we chose Belleville where I had precepted and flew back there and borrowed the money and started our practice. And I can remember…Herb was younger than I by about three weeks or so. But he was a little bit more mature looking, I guess. So our first patient came in. We hired a nurse who was the best thing we had. She probably knew more about medicine than we did. But we hired a nurse and office personnel. We were back in the back examining room playing chess and a man came in and said he needed to see a doctor. The nurse said “Which one do you want to see?” He said “I want to see the oldest one.” And that was me but he thought it was Herb. So he had to put up with me. I think that day we had $15 which we had in our deposit slip. The bank had closed, so I took it home and put it in our deep freeze of the refrigerator so that it was safe. We had fourteen years of practice together and it was beautiful. During that time we had our second son Jim. Herb delivered. And then our third son Stuart. And all the boys grew up in Belleville. And like most youngsters, said “I can’t wait to get out of this sleepy town.” And each one of them after they left had said “Mom and Dad, that was a good place to grow up.” If one of the boys were out late, we would just call the Chief and said could you just kind of check on Jim and make sure he’s okay? He’d say yeah, I know where he is doc. I can remember the lady that was the phone operator (nowadays we wouldn’t have anything like that, of course)…I didn’t have a beeper. So if I went someplace I’d call and say “Dorothea, I’m going to be over at Dr. Novack’s house.” “Okay doc.” Then if somebody called me, she would call over there. And that was our beeper system.\n\nWe did family medicine. And when we came, they had a hospital that wasn’t very good. But when we talked to people about going there, they said bonds had been voted on and they were going to build a new hospital. So before they got it built, we had to practice in the old hospital which actually was owned by the physician that I precepted with. But it was a little more difficult then at this hospital and we were kind of an integral person [?]. But we got along fine and did family medicine much differently than now. We didn’t have the specialty of family medicine. So Herb and I decided in our agreement that we would be forced to take continuing education, which we did. And I usually went back to the University of Kansas and spent three to four weeks every year in some area. One time in pediatric cardiology, another time in orthopedics, another time in anesthesia. And Herb did too and then he also went to school in Chicago. So that was our residency training so to speak. And I think it did us well. We were able to do quite a bit of surgery. Took care of our own fractures except for ones that were difficult and we would either call or send to an orthopedist. Did a lot of OB/GYN, hysterectomies, C-sections, appendix, did gall bladders. All those things that unfortunately family medicine has given up somewhat. I’ll tell you later on in my story about when I started in the Academy and our discussions at the [American] College of OB/GYN. [ACOG] \n\nBut that was my family. And later on when my sons were probably ten, six and five, something like that, we took a trip to Guatemala. I always wanted to try some missionary work and Margie wanted to do that too. So we found a place, an organization called Andoc [?]. At that time, family physicians who wanted to go help people and people who needed help. So they had need for a physician in a town in Guatemala called Chichicastenango that sounded delightful to me and Margie, so we packed the kids up and went. And it was a marvelous experience. I think all three of the boys had a different perspective on life after being there. I can remember one time the children and I were coming back from the clinic and one of the little Mayan Indian boys was watching the other kids in school. He was outside the fence. And you could tell by his looks, he would just give anything to be able to go to school. We walked on a little farther and my son said “Dad, I will never complain about going to school again.” So I think it was a good experience for the boys. It certainly was for me and for Margie. The Mayan Indians who descended from the people who lived in Chichicastenango were of small stature. They would stand 5’8”, maybe 5’6”. Women 5’2”, 5’3”. Margie was 5’9”, I think. They thought she was an Amazon. They just looked in wonder at that pale giant who was there with me. But we had a great time doing that. And actually we went back about five years later to Nicaragua to ----. So we did a couple of those. All of them were great experiences and I would sure recommend that to anybody. And that was our time, I guess, in Belleville.\n\nI got interested in family medicine. When we decided what we were going to do outside of our practice Herb elected to do more things with AMA. And he was county coroner, so he had that added responsibility. And I decided I wanted to go with the general practice people, then family practice, and got involved in the Kansas Academy [of Family Physicians].\n\nDid any of your boys elect to go into medicine?\n\nNo. When we were in Guatemala, Mitchell went with me to some of the smaller little villages and he would act as an interpreter. He had a little Spanish. Then he met a priest there who wanted to learn English. So the priest taught him some Spanish and he taught this priest English. He later had a minor in Spanish and a major in political science and then went on to law school at the University of Kansas. So I think his Spanish was helpful there. And my middle son Jim, the closest he came to doing anything medical was a CAN, Certified Nurse Assistant. My youngest son Stuart almost got into medicine. He graduated from the University of Kansas in medical administration. Went to x-ray school, then went to x-ray tech school. He used to be on call as an x-ray student at the university. And if somebody was injured at a football game, he would have to go down and take x-rays. Later on when he got his degree in radiation therapy from Topeka, Kansas, he married his childhood sweetheart. She decided that she wanted to go to law school. So he went to ---- therapy school and she went to law school. When they graduated she had an opportunity to come to south Texas to clerk for a federal judge. So Stuart came along a little reluctantly. But he was a great outdoorsman, so that enticed him. He came down here and did some things and ran a cancer treatment center for a while. And then traveled for one of the companies that made x-ray equipment. But finally his heart brought him around to opening a hospice. There were not any hospices in Brownsville, Texas where he lived. So he started a hospice here and ran it very well and she was very successful. He had a great deal of problems with some of the physicians here. Growing up with doctors, he was not afraid to make comments about some things. And some of the physicians here had a different philosophy on hospice. And he would say “Dad, we had a patient today with terminal pancreatic cancer suffering and the doctors would take her to the hospital and say ‘oh, she was pneumonia” and did thousands of dollars’ worth of tests and not pay attention to the fact that she was dying and needed relief from her discomfort.” Anyway, he did that ----. He unfortunately died several years ago of a post-myocardial viral infection. So that was a big loss. And actually brought Margie and I down…we had come to south Texas, ---- on vacation. Mitchell, my oldest son, was down here. Then when Stuart came down and we lost him, he decided to move down here permanently to be with our grandchildren. So he did that about ten years ago.\n\nI would like to go back. You practiced privately in Belleview. At what point in time did you go into academic medicine?\n\nBelleville, Kansas. I got interested and I sat in the family practice Academy meetings. And finally got involved in the politics and got elected to the presidency of that organization. And through that became more acquainted with and more interested in the American Academy. And then I got elected as a delegate and got quite a bit interested then. It was really quite interesting and very helpful. And that followed by running for the Board of Directors. I can’t tell you exactly what year that was.\n\nYou said at the state level?\n\nNo, I’d been through the state level as a president. Then was elected a delegate for the Academy, national Academy. I served, I think, two years as a delegate then ran for the Board. And I can’t remember exactly the year. I think it was probably ’78. I’m not sure. Anyway, I ran at that time and lost to Holger Rasmussen. I don’t know if that name is familiar.\n\nOh, yes. \n\nHe was on the Board one year ahead of me. Holger beat me by one vote. That’s what I heard, without being privileged to the actual vote count. Anyway, that was a sad time. But everybody encouraged me and I ran the next year and won the position on the Board of Directors. That was a tremendous turning point. That was a move that really changed our whole life and our whole medical experience.\n\nYou did go on the Board from 1979 through 1981. Tell me a little bit about what was going on in family medicine at that point in time.           \n\nA couple of things. One is we really weren’t greatly recognized as a specialty and we had to remedy that. It was a constant battle starting then, I think, about privileges and who deserved privileges. There was also a problem with equal pay for equal service. If I took out an appendix in Belleville, Kansas, I should be paid as much as a surgeon that took it out in Kansas City. With the realization, of course, that there’s a difference in cost of living, etc. But that was an issue. I think the CME was an issue. How to provide CME effectively and economically to family physicians. And how to make sure that the Academy’s responsibility was to the practicing physicians. That that’s the people we needed to answer to as a national organization. I think those were the most pressing things. And we had a good group of people. The first Board meeting we had, I was in Kansas City at the Alameda. A great hotel, one of the best hotels in the world at that time. Then the quainter hotel right across the street. What’s the name of that, Sandy?\n\nThe Raphael.\n\nRaphael, yes. Margie and I were staying in the Raphael. And at that time we were doing the budgeting. And I remember coming back and telling Margie, I don’t think I belong here. She said, “Oh, come on.” And I said “No, they’ve got so many things going on and I’m not sure that I’m qualified.” And that was a very difficult meeting. But got by without any trouble with her support. And everybody else was able to stay. It was interesting.\n\nWhen you were President you worked with the College of OB/Gyn?\n\nYes, I was on the Council on Medical Specialties [Council of Medical Specialty Societies] and we were trying to hammer out some sort of an arrangement about qualifications. It seemed to me quite obvious, from my experience, that you didn’t need to have a four-year residency in OB/GYN to learn when a C-section was necessary and how to do it. I actually said something one time (I probably shouldn’t have) that you can train a monkey to actually do it. Anyway, that was a big problem. But we worked it out pretty well, I think.\n\nThe Board [of Directors] at that time…do you want me to get into that now?\n\nSure.\n\nWe had some outstanding people on the Board. I’m sure they had outstanding people all the time. There’s nothing new about that. But Mac Cahal had retired. And Mike Miller and Roger Tusken were there. And Roger was an outstanding person in my mind. And he didn’t have a physician as the chief operating officer, or whatever that title is. So most of the decisions were made by the Board of Directors and announced by the President of the Academy rather than the chief operating officer. Now with MDs there, that changed quite a bit. But meetings were intense. I can remember one time, I was chairman of the Legislation Committee. And we met and everybody had a pretty long list of things to go over. I can’t remember exactly the title of the legislation that we were either supporting or advocating against. At one program I said “You know, here’s the information about it and the committee recommends that we support this.” And Holger Rasmussen was always a really ---- and made sure you understood everything. And he said “Well, Dr. Chaney, would you just tell me why you want to do that?” And [I said] “Dr. Rasmussen, I certainly can. If you can’t read what’s in the report, I’ll go over it page-by-page and let you know what we decided.” He said “Okay, forget it.” He said, “You didn’t have much in that, did you?” And I said, “No, I didn’t.” But there were pretty good people. I remember one time we had a meeting in Chicago and Margie and I flew our airplane and landed at Meigs Field. It isn’t there anymore. It was that manmade field that’s out in Lake Michigan. That was an exciting trip. I think I walked from there to the meeting place. And I can’t remember how far that was but it was not a small jaunt. And each of those meetings have a special place in your mind. The meeting in San Francisco [in 1982] was at the Fairmont. We had the top floor of the Fairmont. It was actually the floor that the owner, he passed away and they rented it out. We brought so many people to the meeting, they comped a few of the officers. And I was President at that time. And Margie and I and [Douglass] Haddock, he was Vice President, I believe and Secretary…anyway, he had the floor which was outstanding. I think it had a big library in it and had a walkway all around the top of the hotel that you could look out and see the rest of San Francisco. Had a private bartender and all of those meeting places, we used to invite all of our state members who were there, come up and see the place and have a drink. So that was an exciting place to be.\n\nAny other recollections of your presidency at all that you would like to have on the audiotape? \n\nThere was one time when the American College of Surgeons denied admission or would not let one of the surgeons rejoin. And the reason was that he was doing itinerant kids [?] in some smaller towns in Nebraska. So we sought to help him. But a lot of the family physicians wouldn’t do that, particularly the fact of surgery [?], wanted to have that service available to the patients. So I went around to all of the hospitals close in our area that he practiced in and listed the work that he did and the complications he had and his care. And he would do the surgery and then the family physician would be first assistant. Then the family physician would follow up and be there for post-upgrade [?]. And the contention of the American College of Surgeons was that was bad medicine. We actually found out that their complication rates and survival rates were better than the bigger hospitals in the area. So it just proved that you can do the surgery if you have good people doing it and if you had good people doing the follow-up. And in some areas their recovery is probably better because when Grandpa had his prostate taken out, he could look out and see the farm. And he gets well quicker and is happier than if he is in a big city and sees just buildings. So that was an interesting thing which I believe did turn the tide. And this surgeon was then allowed to rejoin the College of Surgeons. I can’t remember his name right offhand. But that was the issue that we had with many of the specialists. Later on when I’d go to that family medicine, I told my residents I would like you to refer not to specialists but to limited specialists. We are specialists in family medicine. If they’re an obstetrician, they’re a limited specialty of OB/GYN. And the other thing I reviewed was malpractice. You might call it liability insurance. But not all of the suits are malpractice. They are sometimes just a liability. We worked with the American Board of Family Practice to make sure that family physicians understood the need for continuing education and the need to have certification of your training and your experience so that when it comes to getting privileges, that you have some substantiation that yes, indeed, if you’re working for a privilege of taking care of ---- fractures, you’ve had training in that and you know the reasoning and you know the reason it occurs. You know the complications. You know how to manage it and you’ve done that for a period of time. And I think that probably came across. But that was one of the things that we really needed to work on.\n\nAt one time the Academy owned quite a bit of property outside of the airport. I can’t think of the actual name of that…Tiffany Springs. And I always thought and tried to push for let’s use that space to build buildings and have a continuing education center so that family physicians from Hoboken could fly into Kansas City and have good training on fracture care and ----, whatever they wanted to have extra training on. And that was one of my notable failures. We didn’t do that. And now there are several organizations that do train people in how to offer these things – which I think is important. Unfortunately, from my point of view, medicine’s changed quite a bit. But I think sometimes family medicine gives up too quickly on privileges. And now you have hospitalists. Good gracious, family doctors don’t go to hospitals. It’s different in my mind. And the other part of being in the Academy and being in a leadership role, I guess you could say, is that it takes quite a bit of dedication. I always admired our practicing physicians in their willingness to volunteer their time, their energy and their courage to serve on a national organization. Because the farther up that ladder of leadership you go the more you have to give up. And we don’t pay our people. You paid your transportation, you would get a per diem. But that doesn’t compensate you for the loss of practice and the loss of time and that loss of family interchange. So I’ve always been very proud of our membership for doing that. I remember when it used to be that the Board of Directors voted on the Chairman of the Board wasn’t automatic. But now I believe the President automatically is the Chairman of the Board. That was different – all the people on the Board voted who they wanted to be Chairman of the Board. And that was a very interesting and powerful position. I can remember when I was Chairman of the Board, in one June Margie and I were gone from our practice and our family for all but about five days, going to various meetings. And at each committee meeting the Chairman of the Board ought to be there – or I thought so. But we were at most of the meetings. And then anything going on in Washington, DC and state meetings. It took a lot of time and energy but it was really, really, I think, important. There was a time that I had the distinction, I believe, of being the last President of the Family Health Foundation of America and the first President of the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation. Nobody else would…\n\nThat was fun.\n\nDid your service on the Foundation Board occur immediately upon leaving the Academy Board?\n\nYes. That was a note from the Board of Directors of the Academy. And the Family Health Foundation worked into the American Academy of Family Physicians. When I was President of the Family Health Foundation it changed.\n\nAnd were there memorable items that occurred during your tenure on the Foundation Board?\n\nI think the kitty was not as good as it should be and I think we had to work on that. There was a little bit of political tussle at chains. That was after Roger [Tusken] left. Then we had a physician there, a chief operating officer, and I’m not sure about how the operating officer and the Foundation got along with that situation. That’s when they changed and went over to the Academy. What was the name of the young man who was ---- and helped the Health Foundation?\n\nGary McMahan.\n\nWe are really hard work at the Academy, particularly when you are a new member. Because they kind of guide you along. And actually with all of the media we serve, as you know, it took a lot of organization, a lot of planning. And Roger did that very well. And Margaret [Tusken] I think was a positive asset too. \n\nYes.\n\n(Break)\n\nDr. Chaney, we were talking about the Foundation and a little bit about the Academy. Did you want to continue with that?\n\nYes, I have a couple of thoughts that I might want to give out. After we left the Academy there were a group of people that served together on the Board and officers. And we just had so much enjoyment of each other that we decided that we would continue to meet annually with a rotation of hosts and hostesses and just get together and revisit our Academy family, if you will. So we did that. I think we stirred some question in the then current Board of Directors about what we were doing. Were we going to try to be a Super Board and criticize or not? But I think they soon gave that up as any problem because it was just old fellows together who are not going to be dangerous anyway. So together with some, I think, outstanding leaders in family medicine. Sam Nixon was President of the Academy the year before me and he and Elizabeth. Jack Stelmach and Pat. Jack was just before Sam. Bob Shackelford. Evelyn and Bob who was Speaker for several years, George Wolff and Betty. George was the Treasurer for many years, then I think Vice President. Boyd McCracken and Julia. Boyd was a member of the Board of Directors and actually ran against me for the presidency. And we competed in many areas but we didn’t lose respect and love for one another and Boyd was one of those people. John Derryberry and Susan. John was the President and Doug Haddock and Pat. And Doug was I think Vice President. Then Gerald Gehringer. We met for ten, fifteen years I imagine. We met on a rotating basis and we had CME and we would give different talks on different things. And the thing at that time was we were at the University of Texas Health Science Center. So we filled out the paperwork and we got CME credit. I think we were all still practicing, so that was nice to have. After awhile we just gave up and just had fun being together, going to different places. We lost John Derryberry and Jack Stelmach and Doug Haddock and his wife. So we’re down now to the only living ones in that group of Shackelford and Wolff and McCracken and I. That was an interesting group to be with and we certainly enjoyed each other and enjoyed the opportunity to get to meet.\n\nTell me a little bit about what you did after you were finished serving with the Board. Did you go back into private practice or did you move on?\n\nI kept up my practice. It was difficult to do because I was gone so much. Being Chairman of the Board at that time was, as I mentioned before, a very active position. The presidency was also active because being that the President of the organization required some commitments to state chapters occasionally and other activities. I can remember vividly being at a state chapter meeting. I don’t know if I was President or Chairman of the Board. I think it was West Virginia. I was standing up at the podium and the people that were being sworn in for their respective offices, there’s this little speech the Academy has. And I was giving that and I looked out in the audience and Margie was there mouthing it all. She had heard it so many times that she knew it by heart also. After I left the Academy I went back to practice. When I was busy at the Academy, my patients had dropped, had been seen by my two partners. Herb and I finally had a young man from Wesley’s family practice training program that spent some time with us and came and started practice with us. And that made it possible for me to be gone more of the time. But when I would get back, I would fill in for all the times I’d been gone. So when I was back, I was on call almost from the time that I was back so my partners could get paid back a little bit. When I came back, I practiced medicine and got a phone call from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita. Kansas University School of Medicine had a two year in Kansas City and two years in Wichita. And then three residency programs. One of the first residency programs ever developed came from the program in Wichita. And so I got a call from [Edward] Donatelle. He was the department chairman. And he said “I’d like you to come down and direct the program in family practice at St. Joseph Hospital.” I said “I don’t think so.” He said “Give it some thought, think about it.” He called back a couple of times. And one day we were going to see Margie’s mother in a nursing home in Wellington, Kansas, just south of Wichita, and I said “I think I’ll stop off at the St. Joseph Family Practice training program and just talk to them.” I’m not that interested but I thought I’d at least be courteous and visit. So Margie said fine. And we drove down there and I spent some time with Ed Donatelle, looking at the program. And went through the hospital and talk to the residents and went on back. Margie said “What do you think?” I said “Well, it’s got a program that has a lot of possibilities but I don’t know.” So we went on and went down and visited her mother. Came and got a couple more calls. I said “Well, Margie I’m kind of interested in that.” She said if you’re interested, that’s close to my family. So it’s up to you to decide. So I went back down. I said “I’ve got privileges that I worked hard to have all the years and I want to keep those.” [They said] “You can do some of that, we think.” Then they quoted me a salary. So I decided to do that. We came back to that town. One of the most difficult things in my professional career was leaving my practice because it had been twenty-four years in that practice. And the town, the children were grown up, we knew everybody. But we put our house on the market and told people we were leaving. I can remember we left at night so we wouldn’t have to tell everybody goodbye. But all my patients had come by. It was tearful and difficult to leave. But we moved to Wichita and found a place to live. It wasn’t very great but it was a place to live until we could find something different. And went into academic medicine. It was an interesting move that we made into a program that their leadership was I think maybe last [?] would be the word. The program met all the criteria and has an historic program there. Anyway, that was the beginning of a fourteen-year career as the Director of the family practice residency program. It was a unique program because we had the opportunity to teach residents obstetrical, OB/GYN. The surgery department was willing to at least show residents that it doesn’t take any mental genius to take out an appendix. It takes some knowledge to know when and how. But it was a program that allowed the residents to learn family medicine as was practiced in my history anyway. So that was a very fine thing. It was difficult the first year. I still had some things that I was doing with CME and meetings. And I had some other things I had to do. So I had to be gone some of the time and the residents weren’t too happy about that. And then they were not too happy about having the leadership tell them what they thought they should learn. I always said it’s kind of like raising your kids. The first-year residents are like two year olds. The second-year residents are like teenagers. Then the third-year residents say “Oh, my god, I’ve got to go out there and practice. I better pay attention.” So it was an experience for them, I’m sure, and for me and Margie. But we enjoyed the interchange and enjoyed having the residents come by for Christmas parties. We really did a good job of recruitment. I think some residencies have the advantage of having a mountain where they could snow ski and a lot of activities. Wichita, Kansas is a little bit different. We have prairie and hot summer and cold winter and we have to really recruit kids, don’t come to your facility because of your extraneous activities and events but come here to learn. And we had some excellent students. During that time there was a Mead Johnson award. Do you remember that?\n\nI do.\n\nA couple of things I insisted on. One of them was the residents all fill out a CV because they need to know how to put down things that they’ve done and have a record of that. And I suggested that they fill out the form and send it in to the committee on the Mead Johnson awards. They did it and were potentially good students and good citizens and we ended up having a Mead Johnson winner every year, I think, for four or five years. And one year we had two which I thought was remarkable about our residency. The other thing I demanded the residents do that they didn’t like was to dress professionally. I hate wearing shirts [suits?] and ties. And now that I’m retired, I don’t do that but on Sunday mornings. But they would come and everybody likes to wear their scrub clothes. So they would come in scrub clothes and I’d catch them in the hall and say “Are you going to deliver a baby?” No. “Have you got surgery scheduled?” No. “Then you go home and change clothes. You look like a butcher or a barber or something. You’re professional and patients want to see you dressed like a professional person.” That was part of what I thought they should do. And the residents were wonderful kids. One of our residents went to Africa and worked for a mission there. And wrote back and said “Today I saw two machete wounds, a lion bite and had to do a [C-]section on a breech.” He said “You never trained me about lion bites!”\n\nWe had some really bright kids. They were so bright they embarrassed me, but they were really bright. One young man went into the Navy aboard a ship. I think it was the people getting out of Cuba. And they picked up one of the rafts or whatever and delivered a baby on this boat. Of course, the only medical officer there knew very well how to deliver babies and got a great write-up in the Navy press. So I was proud of the residents.\n\nAnd at the end of the fourteen years, is that when you moved to Texas?\n\nNo, we still stayed in Wichita and enjoyed retirement there. I got a call one day from the dean of the medical…we did come down here to spend two or three months. We came down in the wintertime. Then came back to Kansas in the spring. But one winter when we were down here, I got a call from Joe Reed who was the Dean of the medical school in Wichita. He said “We need a new Chairman of the Family Practice Department. And I’ve talked to several people and would like you to come up and do that.” And I said “I don’t think so. I appreciate the honor of being asked but I don’t think I want to do that. I’m enjoying retirement.” [He said] “Well, think about it.” And a couple of other called me and finally he called and said “We really need you to come up. We won’t be…I’ll get a new permanent Chairman of the department but I’d like you to come up and help me out.” So I said “Okay, I’ll do that.” So I came back to Wichita. I said if I do it, and we settled on a salary and all that stuff…I said “If I do it, I want you to know that I’m not going to act like a lame duck. I’m not going to just come there and sit in a chair. I’m going to try to do some things. And number two, I’m not going to be there for two or three years. You’re going to have to really get on the ball and find somebody.” So he said okay. So then we lived in Wichita but I took on the job as Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine. And that was an interesting political job. We had good support from the dean. Mostly good support from the other people. But two of the residencies were affiliated with the University [of Kansas]. The other residency was kind of semi-affiliated. Not very close. And the residencies, one of them at least, resented the medical school. So it was interesting times there. I remember we had a little meeting room and it was kind of a little library and a reading room for the faculty. And it was about eighteen [feet] across and twelve [feet] long. So I said we really need to do something. Another department I visited with, the person in charge, they were moving out of the bigger area into a new building or something. So that room there is going to be available. So I loaded the place up with chairs around the table and had a meeting. I invited the Dean and had people situated so when he came in there wasn’t a seat there. He had to go behind everybody, scoot them up and go around to get a seat on the other side. So we had the meeting and I remarked – “You know, Family Medicine should have a little bit more respect than this. We have this meeting room and we meet here and can hardly get in it.” And that turned the Dean around. And I said “There’s a room down here we can get if you would allow us to do it.” He said okay. So we then had a big room for a library. And I had a presentation on the electronic…anyway, I had the Kansas Academy directors and officers come up and had a plan to show our really first-class library with computer availability for residents and all the things that I wanted in that. And if they could help, that would be great. And they went back and gave us support to do all the things we wanted to do. And named it the Ernie Chaney Library which I thought was neat.\n\nThat is neat.\n\nThat lasted a year, I guess. And the next fall I called the Dean and said “Joe, I want you to go to the window and look out at the trees. What do you see?” [He said] “The leaves are turning.” [I said] “Yeah, they’re falling off and I’m leaving, so you better get on the ball and get a good search committee.” [He said] “Okay, I’m going that.” And I said “Okay, I want to be chairman of the search committee.” Alright. “And I want these people on it.” Okay. So we got busy and got Rick Kellerman who later ended up as President of the Academy, two, three years ago. And Rick has done a fantastic job as Chairman of the department that it is today. And I handpicked him. \n\nHe is wonderful.\n\nYeah, he’s done a beautiful job. We had three ex-Presidents of the Academy at the Kansas gathering. George Burket, me, and Rick Kellerman. They had their pictures taken. Tres Presidentes. That’s a pretty good comment on the Kansas Academy.\n\nIt is. It’s been a good run for Kansas.\n\nAnything in particular just from a philosophical point-of-view that you would have changed over your career?\n\nOur youngest son passed away unexpectedly seven years ago. And looking back, although we were really busy in the Academy, they gave us an extra day or two with him. We would come back and he’d be wrestling. I never understood why you wrestle. He also played football but wrestling was his real love. And I asked him one day, “Why do you do that? Why do you like wrestling as opposed to other sports?” He said “In other sports, at least in high school, the coach likes and favors somebody and they’ll play him and use him. In wrestling that doesn’t occur. If you can beat the kid you’re wrestling for a place on the varsity, that’s just it. It’s you, not the coach that’s picking you.” And he certainly enjoyed all of that. And Margie and I were at most, I think. But you always wonder back if we had spent more time.\n\nOther than that, the Academy philosophically, I hope they never lose respect and knowledge that the fight is for the practicing physician, the guy out there in Osborne, Kansas who wants to deliver the best medicine possible the patients he has. And I think you have to be political and in an environment where you have to be on the national scene. You’re always there to further the ease of life as the family doctor out in smaller villages.\n\nWhat would you say is your proudest achievement in your career? These are hard questions.\n\nI think probably the proudest I am is of taking care of people that needed to be taken care of. I am proud of our time we spent on the two mission trips that we spent with my family to Guatemala and Nicaragua. Those were good things to do, I believe. I’m proud of our children. But my own personal pride, I’m proudest of having this wonderful life. Whatever I could do, we did it at the ----.\n\nI’ve come to the end of my questions. Are there any other reflections that you would like to include?\n\nNo, I don’t think so. I’m amazed that you were able to listen to me ramble on for an hour and a half. \n\nYou can’t imagine what a pleasure it is for me.\n\nI’ve enjoyed speaking with you and the library. I think it’s important to do what you’re doing. My eldest granddaughter had a class at KU when she was a senior. She was going over family history and about three years ago did a videotape of Margie and I. It went back to our beginnings. And she sent me a copy of it. That was marvelous to be able to sit down and watch. But I think what you guys do, trying to preserve some of the history of the specialty, is a laudable and great achievement. Will you send me a copy of this?\n\nYes, you will get a copy. And in reflection, after we’re finished, if you think of other areas you wish to include in it, we can set up a different time and we can do just very specifics and add that on to the tape. This is really a living document. So from here on out we leave it up to you. But if there’s something else as you sit down tonight and think I should have included this, we’ll just set up another time and go through that section.\n\nI appreciate you doing this. Who all do you record these with?\n\nOh, my. I’ve done Bob Graham. I’ve done Dan Ostergaard. I’ve done a lot of the staff. I have done Neil Brooks. I have to think I have done twenty of these.\n\nWell, you don’t have much of us old folks left.\n\nNo. And Dr. Holverson is the only one who would be a past president prior to you. Everybody else is after you. And I’m pretty well caught up to the current time. I didn’t do Rick Kellerman. So we’re trying now to catch up and capture … \n\nHow about Bob Shackelford?\n\nI have not done Bob. But somebody else may have done that along the way because there are other people who are doing it also. \n\nHimself and Boyd McCracken are the only other two from my time that are left, I think.\n\nYes, and I haven’t done Boyd. And I don’t know, again, if somebody has done them. I’ve got the list and now I’m going from you and catching up from your tenure on forward. So I think they’ve got everybody else. \n\nAn outside thought that hit me and is probably not worth mentioning. But have you ever thought about talking to our wives?\n\nI haven’t. But the one wife I did do because she did the interview for me was Judy Inskip. He has Alzheimer’s now, so she did the interview specifically for his children. I hadn’t thought of doing the wives. I think we need to catch up with the … Because there was a long blank when no audiotapes were being done. So we’re trying to catch up on the past presidents. And that’s a great idea. I will take that back. I’m serving on the Board of Curators now for the Foundation. This is a project of the Board of Curators. \n\nTell them all that I said thanks.\n\nI will do that. And again, it was great talking to you. I always enjoy doing these because I learn the history of a physician that I spent a lot of time with.\n\nThis is a great thing to do. \n\nThank you so much. And again, if you think of anything let us know and we will get you as soon as this … It takes a while to transcribe these tapes. \n\n(End)","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/162030/file/294261#t=0.0,2960.4447"}]}]},{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/162030/file/294260","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 2 of 2 - ChaneyErnie_02_Access.mp3"]},"duration":1946.7207,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/162030/file/294260/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/162030/file/294260/content/2/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/294/260/original/ChaneyErnie_02_Access.mp3?1759948087","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":1946.7207,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/162030/file/294260","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[]}]}