Press Release

08/26/2009
For Immediate Release

SJRMC Physician Back Home Again at Plymouth Internal & Family Medicine

As a lifelong Hoosier, Plymouth's Joe Binfet must feel like he's living out the words to the state's famous song. And he's doing it by helping others live out healthy lifestyles - Back Home - as a Physician at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center's Plymouth Family and Internal Medicine.

"It really feels good to be back in the Plymouth community," said Dr. Binfet, a 1998 graduate of Plymouth High School. "And to be back as a doctor, especially at the place where I came to as a patient when I was a kid, gives me the feeling that I am giving back to the community that gave so much to me while I was growing up."

The journey back home, and the career path he chose to get here, really started long before he ever left.

"I always knew that I had an interest in medicine," Dr. Binfet explained. "I loved science and I loved people. So I could either have been a scientist or a car salesman. But being a physician is the perfect bridge between science and people.

"Hanging out in a lab wasn't for me because I needed that interaction with others," he continued. "That's what drove me to primary care. So I wanted to do something, anything connected with Saint Joseph here in Plymouth."

There were many volunteer opportunities at SJRMC/Plymouth, but a college freshman doing his undergraduate work at Indiana University needed some money for books, boarding, and the many other Bloomington expenses. Finally, the hospital had an opening in its Plant Operations Department.

"It was pay and I said, 'Where do I sign up," said Dr. Binfet.

So the young doc-to-be spent the next five summers and other school vacations mowing lawns, planting flowers, sweeping lots, and various other maintenance duties around the hospital grounds.

"Sweeping liter and cigarette butts at 7:00 AM every day for an hour and a half was a humbling experience," he recalled. "But I got to know a lot of the doctors who were coming in every morning and it was very nice and encouraging to have them chat with me for a bit when I would see them."

Keeping in contact with the connections he made while keeping the hospital parking lots clean, Dr. Binfet spent the next four years at IU's School of Medicine in Indianapolis. From there it was onto Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie for three years of Residency work. It was during that time that the road back to Plymouth seemed to be straightening.

"While I was in Med. School, I did a month of rotation here at Plymouth Family and Internal Medicine under Dr. (Joel) Schumacher," he said. "I think some of that had to do with Dr. Schumacher remembering me from my days in Plant Operations."

And not too long ago, when Dr. Binfet completed his Residency in July 2009, Dr. Schumacher remembered enough of his former precept student to offer him a chance to be a partner at Plymouth Family & Internal Medicine.

"Long before I knew Joe was interested in medicine, he always impressed me with his great personality and strong work ethic, whether it was as a wrestler or baseball player at Plymouth High School, or doing landscaping and other duties around the hospital when he was in college," said Dr. Schumacher. "We have always been very selective at Plymouth Family & Internal Medicine regarding who we would want to have join us. Joe has all the qualities of a great family physician and I feel blessed to have a guy whom I have known for years now come back home and join me and our partners here."

Dr. Binfet, his high school sweetheart now wife Abbey, and 16-month-old son Alexander, feel just as blessed to be back home.

"I can't imagine a better place than this community to raise a family," Dr. Binfet said. "And the impact I can make as a doctor in a community like this can be so much greater. As a doctor, you're a role model here and I plan on being very active in things like career days and going back to the classrooms that taught me."

From patient to student to doctor, and 12 years along the way, one of Plymouth's very own found his way back to the place his heart never really left. And where grass mowing and parking lot sweeping, and a lot of studying, left a door wide open.

"I can remember sitting up on that table as a patient and now I'm sitting here on this stool as a doctor," Dr. Binfet said. "It's amazing how it all kind of just fell into place and the evolution of being Dr. Schumacher's patient, student, and now friend and associate is really something special. I can now help those who helped me – that's the cool part."