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Rossheim |
BY JIM HALL
Dr. Brooke Rossheim has been named director of the Rappahannock Area Health District.
Rossheim was the acting director of the district, appointed in May after the resignation of Dr. John Petrasky. For several months, he split his time between Fredericksburg and the Chickahominy Heath District in Ashland, where he also was the acting director. He assumed full-time duties in Fredericksburg on Aug. 1.
A native of Norfolk, Rossheim earned his medical degree from the VCU School of Medicine and did advanced training at Wake Forest University and the University of Virginia. He is board certified in internal medicine, geriatrics and public health.
He was a practicing physician in the Hampton Roads area for six years, with about 2,000 patients. Later he obtained a master's degree in public health and joined the state Department of Health in 2007.
"The way I look at it, now I have 315,000 patients," he said.
Rossheim said he has spent the last several weeks traveling the area, talking with local hospital officials, county administrators and school workers.
The district includes health department offices in the city and each of the surrounding counties. It is the sixth-largest in the state by population and unique in many ways, he said.
"There's a saying, 'If you've seen one health district, you've seen one health district,'" he said.
Jim Hall: 540/374-5433
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com
