Williamsburg native joins hospital staff

MARENGO — A surgeon’s retirement has made way for a Williamsburg native to return to Iowa County.

Dr. Ross Doehrmann, an orthopedic surgeon, joins the staff of Compass Memorial Healthcare as Dr. Douglas Cooper retires.

“I grew up in Williamsburg,” said Doehrmann during a December interview at Compass Memorial. He has family still living there --his mother, Jan Doehrmann, step-father, Mike Malloy, his brother, Ryan, and Ryan’s family.

Doehrmann’s father died of melanoma when he was 12, in 2002. Doehrmann spent a lot of time at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and that drew him into science in the first place, he said.

Doehrmann played four sports in high school – football, baseball, basketball and track. He attended Central College in Pella and played football for the Dutch.

Doehrmann always liked science and biology and saw many different doctors when he had sports injuries. About halfway through his college career, Doehrmann thought about going to medical school.

Doehrmann attended Des Moines University and graduated in 2017.

Doehrmann liked the hands-on aspect of medicine that surgery demands. “I kind of liked that aspect that it’s a skill,” he said.

As in athletics, Doehrmann is aways honing his medical skills. He’s always evolving, learning. “It’s always a journey.”

“I kind of bounced around on different specialties,” said Doehrmann. He’d planned a career in orthopedic medicine and trained for the specialty in a suburb of Detroit. He performed a lot of hip and knee replacements and rotator cuff surgeries, he said.

Doehrmann spent a year in Huston, training in shoulder and elbow reconstruction.

‘The goal was always to come back to Iowa,” said Doehrmann. His wife, Hailey, is from Boyden in Northwest Iowa and is a physical therapist, though she isn’t practicing now. They have a one-year-old daughter and a child due this month. They also enjoy their 3-year-old golden retriever named Penny.

The couple lives in Urbandale, but Doehrmann will be in Marengo for surgeries once a week, said surgery manager Amanda Koehn.

“Dr. Doehrmann has a much broader range [than Cooper],” said Koehn and will be performing surgeries that Cooper didn’t handle.

“We do around eight surgeries a month right now,” said Koehn in December. But the hospital has patients who could use benefit from surgeries that Cooper couldn’t perform because they weren’t in his wheelhouse or because he wasn’t available. Cooper performed surgeries at Compass two days a month. Koehn expects Doehrman at the hospital weekly.

Orthopedic surgery has changed a lot even from 10 years ago, said Doehrmann. Joint replacement used to require a hospital stay of 5-7 days, he said. It used to be a very big endeavor.

Now patients may spend one night or go home the same day, depending on the patient. Methods of controlling pain are better, and incisions are smaller.

“I’m excited to start coming down here,” said Doehrmann. He likes having his hometown nearby. He believes he’s doing something good.

“Some things you do to make you happy. Some because you know it’s good.”

“Dr. Cooper has done a really good job of serving this community,” said Koehn. He got the hospital to the point that it needs to offer more care. Doehrmann can deliver that.