By Danyel Jones
AFRO Staff Writer
Dr. Michael Zollicoffer (Courtesy Photo/lifebridgehealth.org)
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(September 10, 2009) - Local pediatrician Dr. Michael Zollicoffer has been practicing medicine in Northwest Baltimore for over 22 years and he is now making moves to provide the community with something different--- knowledge.
With his practice previously split between his private offices in Pikesville, Md., and Sinai Hospital on Rogers Avenue, the doctor’s offices are now combined on the Green Spring Avenue and the Sinai campus for a more convenient alternative that will now include a learning center. Within the next 12 months, Zollicoffer is planning to open a brand new state-of-the-art learning center that will offer literacy classes in conjunction with an urgent care center called Life Care Plus.
“We will have a reading program through the Academy of Pediatrics to help identify those who are illiterate so they can get the help they need,” said Zollicoffer. “We will also have innovative seminars on relationships, financing, health care numerous topics that will be conducted by myself and others on Saturdays and Sundays. We want to not only provide a place where you come in when you are sick but provide a place that will empower you…a place where you come before you get ill, a real holistic place because medicine should be an art, taking care of all that ales you.”
Among other issues, Zollicoffer also recognizes America’s growing child obesity rate and said his practice will also provide a “Get Fit Kid” program to help children who are or may become overweight.
The son of a doctor, this Baltimore native recalls when he first recognized his passion for medicine. “I probably knew as a small child. Since my dad was a physician and he had a great history in the city as well, I watched him,” said Zollicoffer. “As a child, they used to call me ‘Doctor Z’ or ‘Doc Zoc’, so I knew that I had to live up to the name.”
This medical veteran treats children of all backgrounds and parents struggling with various health concerns. However, Zollicoffer recognizes a striking similarity among the families he treats. “The one issue that I find most common with the parents is ignorance,” said the doctor. “One of the biggest problems in medicine is ignorance and brainwashing because people are so much educated through media erroneously, through the family erroneously so a lot of stuff like fear is handed down about your health that you end up believing instead of seeking the correct information for yourself.”
The ground-breaking physician also sees a true need for the combined health and wellness services. “The reason behind the services is we have health care that inappropriately uses the emergency room really from a lack of knowledge among patients,” Zollicoffer explained. “The emergency room is not a place to go to when you have a rash or a runny nose. So the intermediate things that we have put into place are the urgent care systems that are blossoming up all over the city. So what the urgent care center does is it also offers an afterhour’s place where you can also get your regular health care. Now we can get some of those people out of the emergency room and into a more appropriate venue. Now we will have primary care and urgent care under one roof. Now we are helping to divert one of the biggest costs of health care away from an inappropriate use.”
Zollicoffer plans to use his pioneering health-learning center initiative to further assist the Baltimore community. “We can do this through exposure,” said the doctor. “And letting people know that we will also be treating adults. I don’t care who you are, I will try my best to empower you. And when my job is all said and done, I would like to be remembered as a man who enlightened someone to get away from the ignorance that pervasively keeps us down…remembered as someone who empowered people.”