Oaklawn’s Dr. Thomas Farchone to retire
Dr. Thomas Farchone, a mainstay at Oaklawn for the past quarter of a century, will officially retire on Dec. 18 after practicing medicine for 35 years.
Raised in northeast Detroit, Dr. Farchone graduated medical school from Automomous University in Guadalajara, Mexico and completed his residency in Family Practice at Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn, Mich.
Dr. Farchone has been a staple in the Marshall and Battle Creek communities since 1993. He initially began practicing in Battle Creek when he joined Dr. Walk’s practice. Then in 1997 Dr. Farchone began practicing in Marshall, when he took over Dr. Burris’s practice. Finally in 2000, Dr. Farchone joined the Oaklawn family.
Since working with Oaklawn, Dr. Farchone has worked in several offices including the Oaklawn Life Improvement Center, the Wright Medical Building, and the Beadle Lake Oaklawn Medical Group office.
Dr. Farchone has been easing into retirement with a reduced clinic schedule the last year, and now he is excited to fully grasp his retirement years. After celebrating his 70th birthday, he is looking forward to traveling with his wife of 40 years, Kathy, starting with a trip to Alaska. Dr. Farchone is also looking forward to spending time with his four grandchildren and spending some more time on his passion for ministry at Victory Life Church.
When you ask Dr. Farchone what he will miss most about practicing medicine full time, he will tell you without skipping a beat that it is the relationships he has been able to form with his patients.
“They’re not just looking for a doctor, they are also looking for a friend; someone to care about them,” he said.
After reading the several pages of reviews from Dr. Farchone’s patients, it is clear that he has made a difference in hundreds of lives, spanning generations.
“I’ve developed good friendships with a lot of patients,” he said. “I delivered babies for seven years and now I’m taking care of those people as adults and taking care of their children. Taking care of multiple generations, that has been very rewarding, and I’ll miss that the most. I am taking care of a patient now who I delivered 28 years ago, and I still take care of his parents and his grandmother.”
Dr. Farchone’s influence reaches well past the Marshall and Battle Creek greater area.
“I still take care of patients who live up north, live in Florida, California and North Carolina, they still come back to see me as their primary care physician,” he said.
As he finishes his lengthy career, Dr. Farchone said it has been a “privilege serving my patients over the past 25 years at Oaklawn.”
“I’m so thankful to God for entrusting me with the physical, emotional and spiritual care of my many patients,” he said. “As a family physician, it is very rewarding to have cared for patients from newborns to 100 years of age. It has been an honor to be there for my patients to listen, guide, treat, inspire and encourage them in their life’s journey for healthy living. Oaklawn has been a wonderful place to work, and they have provided great support in our quest to deliver great patient-centered care to our community.”
