There comes a point at which a group of esteemed surgeons has to stop adding individual names to an ever-lengthening group name and choose a name that represents the business as a whole. Thus the Salisbury, Md., practice founded by the late Dr. Andrew Forgash and previously known as Forgash, Schaefer and Lischick — and long known as Lischick, Walker, Kerrigan, Chin and Associates — evolved into Mid-Atlantic Surgical Associates.
“As the group expanded, the name became too weighty,” explained Dr. David Kerrigan, one of seven surgeons in the group. “But a lot of people don’t know us by the business name Mid-Atlantic Surgical Associates.”
An expanding number of surgeons as well as an increasing number of patients led the practice also to choose a new location in 2008. “After 15 plus years on Riverside Drive, we moved in August 2008 to our new location at 6507 Deer Pointe Drive,” Kerrigan said. “We are continually growing in response to the increasing need for surgical services, and the old site had no room for growth.”
The new office is in a two-year-old business and medical park just off Hobbs Road, near Perdue Stadium. The 7,000-square-foot facility has 10 examination and patient procedure rooms where small interventions are done. “Nothing requiring anesthesia,” Kerrigan explained. Operations are performed at Peninsula Regional Medical Center or at Delmarva Surgery Center.
The surgeons are very much at home at PRMC. All are active members of the PRMC community, taking leadership roles in the medical staff. Dr. Walter P. Lischick is the American College of Surgeons cancer liaison to the Richard A. Henson Cancer Center. Dr. David T. Walker is director of the PRMC Breast Center. Dr. Un Y. Chin, is both director of PRMC Trauma Services and chief of surgery at PRMC. Dr. Douglas B. Wilhite is both chief of vascular surgery and medical director of the PRMC Vascular Laboratory.
In addition to Kerrigan, the surgical staff is rounded out with Dr. Brion L. McCutcheon and Dr. James Scanlon. All are board certified or board eligible in general surgery. Wilhite and Scanlon have special certificates in both interventional and open Vascular Surgery. In addition, there is a friendly staff of 12 at the office to help care for patients’ needs.
Mid-Atlantic Surgical Associates focuses on six main surgical endeavors — general, laparoscopic, breast, endocrine, trauma surgery and vascular surgery — and has been on the cutting edge (pardon the pun) of the most advanced surgical techniques.
General surgical procedures include thyroid tumors, breast tumors, gall bladder treatment, colon tumors, bowel tumors, skin lesions, and parathyroid diseases or tumors.
Laparoscopic or “minimally invasive” surgery, performed through small incisions, is a modern surgical technique involving the use of a computer chip television camera that provides a magnified view of the operative field on a monitor. Through the years, the surgeons of Mid-Atlantic have spearheaded laparoscopic techniques at PRMC. An early partner did the first laparoscopic appendectomy at PRMC. Kerrigan himself did the first laparoscopic splenectomy. the first laparoscopic adrenalectomy and the first laparoscopic right colectomy. “Now, Chin and McCutcheon do the bulk of the advanced laparoscopic procedures for the group,” he added.
“Another large component of our work, especially in the last five years, is the wide ranging treatment of vascular problems (diseases of the vascular system — arteries and veins), be it percutaneous intervention (putting a wire in through a needle-puncture of the skin) or extensive open advanced techniques of vascular surgery (in layman’s terms, having to make an incision to remove a clogged section of artery, for example, or by-pass the blockage). We also have a strong commitment to the endovascular treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms and thoracic aortic aneurysms. This means using minimally invasive surgery via blood vessels to treat an aortic aneurysm — a bulge in a section of the aorta, the body’s main artery — in the abdomen or chest.
“We’ve also expanded our treatment of venous disorders with the advent of endovenous laser oblation of varicose veins,” Kerrigan continued.
“Last, but not least, since 1996, we have been the trauma service for PRMC, which is the only trauma center on the Eastern Shore.”
If you need a surgeon, now you know who to call: Mid-Atlantic Surgical Associates.
To contact Mid-Atlantic Surgical Associates at 6507 Deer Pointe Dr., for questions or for an appointment, call (410) 543-9332.
“We are continually growing in response to the increasing need for surgical services, and the old site had no room for growth.”
– Dr. David Kerrigan
