Judy Watters, a department administrator with Marshall Health, has received the 2016 Practice Manager of the Year award from the West Virginia State Medical Association (WVSMA).
Watters has served as the department administrator for Marshall Family Medicine for 40 years. In that role, she manages a department and coordinates schedules for 28 faculty, 24 resident physicians, six supervisors and 65 staff at six satellite locations. She is also active in many professional organizations, including Medical Group Management Association, Huntington Junior College Medical Assistant Advisory Board and AAFP Sports Medicine Conference Planning Committee, and she volunteers at her church. She and her husband, Keith, live in Huntington and have two daughters and four grandsons.
Watters was nominated for the award by John Walden, M.D., professor and retired chair of the department of family and community health at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. She leads with ease and grace, and her reputation of professionalism and leadership is legendary, he said.
“It is the rare person who has the natural ability to bring out the best in others and this is where Judy excels,” Walden said.
In addition to her extremely professional ability to manage the practice, Walden praised Watters for her unwavering advocacy for patients, stating that in the many years he worked with her, she always placed patient well-being and appropriate interaction between staff and patients above all else.
WVSMA initiated the Practice Manager of the Year award in 2013 to recognize practice managers as a very critical part of the medical practice. The award was presented to Watters Friday during WVSMA’s annual conference at The Greenbrier.
