AdventHealth Chief Medical Officer, Julie Barnes, MD, is retiring, effective August 31. Dr. Barnes has worked in health care for 43 years and has spent 30 of those years at Redmond working in various roles including volunteer, switchboard operator, nurse aid, nurse, physician and chief medical officer.
Dr. Barnes began her career in medicine as a teen volunteer at Redmond Regional Medical Center. She then graduated from Floyd College with her associate degree in nursing and started at Redmond as a registered nurse in 1981. During her nine years as a critical care nurse, Dr. Barnes was drawn to internal medicine and was encouraged by local physicians to consider becoming a physician. This led to completion of a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Chemistry in preparation for medical school. With the support of her husband and elementary-aged children, Dr. Barnes attended medical school at Mercer University School of Medicine. She graduated in 1994 and completed her residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Barnes became certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in 1997 and recertified in 2007 and 2017.
Dr. Barnes went into private physician practice in Florida for five and a half years before feeling the tug on her heart to return home to Redmond. She longed to serve her community, her family and the people she cared so deeply about in Floyd County, leading her to move back in 2003. Private practice opportunities allowed Dr. Barnes to serve the community broadly until 2008 when she returned to Redmond as a Hospitalist. Dr. Barnes grew as a leader at Redmond and worked collaboratively with physicians and care teams as the medical director of hospitalist services from 2009 to 2013. Dr. Barnes is an inspiration to many as she became the first female chief medical officer at Redmond in 2011.
During her tenure as CMO, Redmond continued to lead the way as the region’s heart care leader. Dr. Barnes worked alongside hospital personnel in patient safety, quality initiatives and evaluation of new clinical programs and technologies. She also served as the liaison between the medical staff, community physicians and hospital administration, leading efforts for both improving and sustaining excellent quality of care for Redmond patients. Her heart for physicians led her to spearhead AdventHealth Redmond’s physician well-being program, which was designed to address the unique challenges physicians face each day.
Under her leadership, the hospital has maintained an “A” Rating for the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade and achieved and then sustained a CMS 5-star rating. The hospital won numerous awards from the Georgia Hospital Association from the Partnership for Healthcare and Accountability in both infection prevention and quality, receiving the Circle of Excellence for Patient Safety and Quality Award from 2020 to 2022.
Dr. Barnes was instrumental in the development of the Internal Medicine Residency Program which opened in 2016. The program flourished and AdventHealth Redmond was named as the top hospital in the Top 25 Teaching Hospitals in 2022 by Fortune/Merative. Dr. Barnes’ leadership has helped the hospital maintain many disease-specific certifications from the Joint Commission. AdventHealth Redmond maintains advanced certification for Primary Stroke and Heart Failure; and has certifications for Orthopedic (Hip/Knee) and Spinal Surgery and AMI.
Outside of work in the hospital, Dr. Barnes has volunteered with the Free Clinic of Rome and aligned the residency support to sustain its workforce. She is a Fellow American College of Physicians and serves on the advisory and foundation board of the Northwest Georgia Clinical Campus of Medical College of Georgia.
“The team at AdventHealth Redmond and I are eternally grateful for Dr. Barnes’ dedication to our hospital, our patients and our team over the course of her career. She is a valuable part of our hospital’s story and has impacted countless lives during her time here,” said Isaac Sendros, president and CEO of AdventHealth Redmond.
