Community Leader

AS A PHYSICIAN, TIM RIDDELL KNOWS THE WAY THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM WORKS—OR, AS THE CASE MAY BE, DOESN’T—AND THAT MAKES HIM THE PERFECT PERSON TO FILL THE CHAIR BEHIND THE DESK OF THE NORTHSHORE REGIONAL MEDICAL DIRECTOR AT OCHSNER MEDICAL CENTER.

FROM DOCTOR TO DIRECTOR

By Liesel Schmidt

Since taking the position in 2020, Riddell has been working to enhance the unique relationships that Ochsner has created with partners including St. Tammany Health System in Covington, Slidell Memorial Hospital in Slidell, and Singing River Health System on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Those connections have proven important to the way that Ochsner serves the Northshore community—service that, for Riddell, is the very reason he became a doctor. “I first realized that I wanted to go into medicine in junior high, when I was a student at Slidell Junior High. During career day, I heard that neurosurgeons made $1,000,000 a year; and, having realized that my rock star dreams were slipping away because I couldn’t play the guitar and that my athletic career wasn’t going where I thought it would go, I focused on the idea of being a doctor,” Riddell says with a laugh. “Of course, as I matured, I recognized the fact that the job is so much more than money. I started to realize that I had a skill of understanding and helping people with problems that they faced. We talk a lot about empathy and the ability to put yourself in someone’s shoes while they’re suffering, but we also have a deep-seated need to fix things that is paramount. You can’t fix everyone’s disease, but you can fix the way that they are experiencing that disease; and that has driven my desire to be a doctor. It can sound a little bit contrived at times, but I believe that this profession is very noble and allows us to really help people at the worst of times.”

Unfortunately, the worst of times has befallen us in a big way—and that has been one of Riddell’s major focuses over the course of his time as medical director. “Really, the biggest thing has been the impact of COVID-19 on our employees and our patients,” he says. “Three months after I started this role, we were hit with the pandemic. The number of things that have changed as a result of COVID could fill a book, from implementing testing programs to developing new ways of taking care of patients within the hospital and providing services for

people not just in this region but across Louisiana. Those were huge changes that our teams were able to take on, and we were able to build one of the most successful vaccine programs in the region, if not the most successful vaccine program in the state.”

A primary care physician, Riddell’s career has deep ties to Ochsner, first at the original Ochsner clinic in Mandeville and then at the Covington clinic. During that time, he progressed through various leadership roles within Ochsner before taking the role as regional medical director on the Northshore. He also sits as a member of the Ochsner Health Board of Directors. “My positions of leadership have involved local roles such as the lead of our primary care practice and associated medical director, which has me over the clinical activities of several different departments,” Riddell explains. “From the overall system level, I’ve served on our professional activities committee and on our medical affairs committee, which handles many of the clinical decisions made by Ochsner.”

For Riddell, taking on the role as regional medical director was an easy decision. “The position really gives me an opportunity to do two things: First, it allows me to help make sure that we’re providing the quality care and experience that the Ochsner name has become known for across the region and, really, across the nation,” he says. “Secondly, it allows me to make sure that the physicians who are providing that care are doing so in a way that really values their effort and their expertise.”

As someone who has lived his entire life on the Northshore, Riddell has deep ties to the community and feels a personal investment in its well-being. That’s something that he brings to the job—and Ochsner shares that commitment to community. “We are proud to treat our patients, but we want even more for them to be healthy,” he says. “We want to support your ability to participate in healthy events that impact all parts of our life, so for us to have a presence there through sponsorship is very important. It’s one of the reasons we recently got together with STHS and other health systems across the region to form Healthier Northshore, which is a platform for us to promote healthy lifestyles and healthy behaviors for everyone across the Northshore.”

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