He has been a family doctor for thousands of St. Mary’s County families for more than 50 years. Dr. J. Patrick “Pat” Jarboe’s contributions to the community were recognized on Saturday with the dedication of a new medical center named in his honor.
The J. Patrick Jarboe Medical Center relocates the Breton Medical Center from San Souci Plaza to the new building on Buck Hewitt Road in California behind the CVS Pharmacy. The center will include family practice and other specialties of the Shah Associates, MD, LLC, which includes more than 100 physicians in 14 locations around Southern Maryland.
At the ribbon cutting ceremony Saturday, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D: 5th) called Dr. Jarboe “an extraordinary human being. We are all in your debt.” Hoyer also praised Dr. Vinod Shah, a long-time personal friend. Hoyer said, “The Lord, I am sure, sent us the Shah family.” He noted they were of a different color and a different culture than the typical St. Mary’s County family, but they quickly earned the respect of the community. “Dr. Jarboe and Dr. Shah came from different schools and different places of birth but with the same commitment to the community,” he said.
Dr. Jarboe, in remarks read by his daughter, said that he and his partner Dr. John Fenwick chose to align themselves with Shah Associates because the Shah family shared with them similar values.
Dr. Vinod Shah noted that times were different when Dr. Jarboe opened his family practice in Great Mills in 1960. Many of the diagnostic tools available today were not available then. It was just “one man in a small community providing health care.” He said it was an honor and a privilege for his family that Dr. Jarboe agreed to have the building named after him.
The Shah Associates practice was founded in St. Mary’s County 37 years ago. Dr. Shah noted the changes in health care from the time he was practicing 40 years ago in the emergency room of a small hospital in Glen Burnie. He said there were many challenges ahead for health care. “We need for all of us to come together for better health care in the community.”
“I have always received enormous support from my family, friends and community,” Dr. Shah said and singled out St. Mary’s Hospital, MedStar and their CEO Christine Wray. Dr. Shah’s wife Dr. Ila Shah sat with him at the ceremony along with two grandchildren. His brother, Dr. Umed Shah also spoke, and praised Hoyer, who he called “the community’s leader.”
Also speaking at the ceremony was Dr. Michael Szkotnicki, who founded of Breton Medical Center in 1992. They joined Shah Associates in 2000. “It’s been an interesting mix of two cultures,” he said of that union.
Among Dr. Jarboe’s many accomplishments include appointment and then election to the Board of St. Mary’s County Commissioners, a founding member of Health Share, and volunteer medical work in Guatemala with his friend, Dr. Martin Barley, a local dentist.
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