LocumTenens.com Honors Two Physicians for Charitable Service with Inaugural Medical Missions Physician of the Year Awards

News provided by

Mar 21, 2013, 01:00 ET

ALPHARETTA, Ga., March 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- With a focus on recognizing and promoting the charity work performed by physicians in the U.S. and around the world, LocumTenens.com announced today that Dr. Richard Westermeyer, a practicing anesthesiologist with Oregon Anesthesiology Group in Portland, Ore., and Dr. Rick Parker, a plastic surgeon with the Austin Plastic Surgery Institute in Austin, Texas, have been selected as inaugural honorees in the Mission:MD MedicalMissions.org Physician of the Year Awards. Together, the two physicians have worked on charitable and mission-related causes for more than 60 years. More than 100 physicians were nominated for the annual awards program that honors physicians who donate their time to help underserved patients in the United States and abroad gain access to critically-needed healthcare services.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120228/CL60630LOGO)

Dr. Rick Westermeyer was selected as the international service honoree for his more than 30 years of service as a medical missions physician, working as a first responder in crisis situations such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the 1984 Ethiopian famine refugee crisis. LocumTenens.com will donate $10,000 in Dr. Westermeyer's honor to Africa Orphan Care, a not-for-profit organization started by him and his family to care for and support African orphans in Zimbabwe.

Dr. Rick Parker was selected as the domestic service honoree for his service to cleft palate patients in the Central Texas area and on missions abroad to Latin America. LocumTenens.com will donate $10,000 in Dr. Parker's honor to Austin Smiles, a not-for-profit organization he helped to found that is dedicated to providing reconstructive plastic surgery, primarily cleft lip and palate repairs, to the children of Austin and the 10 county area surrounding Austin and in Latin America.

"Through our daily work with physicians, we know that their dedication to serving others is amazing," said R. Shane Jackson, president of LocumTenens.com. "Both Dr. Westermeyer and Dr. Parker are perfect examples of physicians using their talents to serve patients who otherwise would have little to no access to healthcare. We are happy to select them as our first honorees based on the incredible work and the amount of lives they've changed in their combined 60 years of medical volunteer service."

LocumTenens.com has made a commitment to supporting medical missions work and increasing healthcare access in underserved areas, sponsoring and recruiting physicians for several medical brigades annually, and also by operating the website medicalmissions.org, which helps connect trained medical volunteers with organizations sponsoring medical missions all over the world. In 2012, more than 14,000 separate mission opportunities were posted by thousands of mission-focused organizations from around the world.

Click here to learn more about the inaugural honorees.

About LocumTenens.com
Founded in 1995, LocumTenens.com is a full-service locum tenens staffing agency. LocumTenens.com operates the largest internet job board for the industry with direct access to thousands of jobs – in all specialties – posted directly by facilities and agencies nationwide. LocumTenens.com is part of the Jackson Healthcare family of companies. To learn more, visit www.locumtenens.com.

LocumTenens.com's agency recruiters specialize in emergency medicine, primary care, ob/gyn, anesthesia, neurology, psychiatry, radiology, urology, gastroenterology and most surgical subspecialties. We place physicians, CRNAs, NPs and PAs in hospitals, medical groups and community health centers across the United States.