Retiring New Canaan doctor recalls 48 years of changes in the medical field

NEW CANAAN — After watching the medical profession evolve over 48 years, Dr. James Slater, who said he was the longest practicing physician at New Canaan Medical Groups, is retiring.

“At 76, it's time to pass the torch to younger people,” he said.

Over the decades, Slater recalled becoming one of the first Connecticut physicians to become a ‘concierge doctor,' seeing health maintenance organizations, or HMO's, change the medical profession and, most recently, helping patients through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Becoming a member of the medical profession has been “something genetic” for Slater, he said, as his father, uncle and brother were all physicians and his sister was a nurse. He grew up in Hamden and enjoyed spending time in his family's home on the Long Island shore.

He earned a bachelors degree from Tufts University and his medical degree from New York Medical College before interning at Metropolitan-Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals.

After finishing his residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, he was tapped to join New Canaan Medical Groups. “I was very fortunate to land in this beautiful town,” he said.

He recalls leaving “a highpowered medical residency” where he predonmimantly treated “really sick” people.

“My first patient needed to have her ears washed and I had no clue how to do that,” Slater said.

When he started in 1974 in New Canaan, he said he had time to see patients in the office and maintain a prestigious position at Norwalk Hospital. As his practice grew busier in town, he quit the hospital gig.

He referenced the emergence of HMOs in the 1990's, adding that, in his estimation, the new insurance practices made “doctors work harder.”

After 10 years in his practice, Slater said he started to feel burnt out. “I felt I was just seeing more and more patients and making them wait longer,” he said. The added paperwork “created an industry of CEOs and managers that also have to be paid.”

Then, he heard about concierge medicine, in which a doctor could opt out of accepting insurance and have a “direct relationship both medically and financially with a patient,” he said.

In 2005, although he knew of only one concierge doctor in the state, he decided to make the change. If his leap of faith in himself failed, he said he would have had to resort to selling his house or getting another job. “I'd pump gas or something,” Slater said.

Instead, Slater was deeply refreshed and felt he got to know his patients better. After the transition, he went from having 4,000 patients to under 300. He became more accessible to patients, seeing patients on the weekends, “or whenever they needed.”

At first, Slater said he struggled with the “elitism” of concierge medicine, but reasoned there may be different and unique medical needs in the community that he could help service.

After his concierge practice became successful, the other four internal medicine doctors in the practice changed to the new model.

Other doctors in town have made the change too, and Slater said primary care doctors are harder to come by in town. “I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm just saying it's difficult,” Slater said. “They are swamped.”

He recalled his experience during COVID-19. “It was pretty ugly, initially, but then came masks, better treatments, oral and intravenous, and the severity decreased and the incidents decreased,” he said. He said he was grateful that there were no deaths in his personal patient pool.

Now, “we have come to a stalemate,” COVID-19 will not be a “massive, horrible problem," but instead an annoying one.

Now a retiree, Slater is content and in good health. “I felt it was time that I retired, but I needed to have a good replacement,” he said. Dr. Seth M. Sullivan took over on April 1 after having been a hospitalist, focusing on patients at Norwalk Hospital for 13 years.

Slater called him “terrific.”

In his retirement, Slater wants to spend more time with his three daughters and eight grandkids. “I felt I needed the luxury of personal time,” he said. “I didn't have any major hobbies in mind, but I certainly don't want to be just a retiree doing nothing. I want to be a role model for my kids and grandkids.”

He plans to stay in New Canaan, as it acts as a nice midway point between his three daughters who live in Wilton, New Jersey and Vermont. Slater said he wishes to watch his “grandkids grow up and go to their sports games,” garden with his wife Cheryl, cook and “maybe join a book club.”

Simply, Slater looks forward to doing things “I haven't had a chance to do” during his busy medical practice.