Elk Regional Health Center is pleased to announce that John Lacorazza, D.O, a family practitioner, is seeing patients in Elk Regional’s Medical Office Building, Suite 220, located on the St. Marys campus of Elk Regional Health Center.
“When it comes to physician recruitment, Elk Regional is committed to bring the best physicians and surgeons to the area,” said Gregory P. Bauer, President and CEO of Elk Regional Health System. “We feel strongly that our communities deserve it. I’m excited to introduce Dr. Lacorazza to our community.”
For Dr. Lacorazza, family medicine was a welcome change from life as a surgeon.
“Surgery was appealing while I was in medical school,” Dr. Lacorazza said. “As a resident, I found that there was a lot of unhappiness in surgery, a lot of stress – both for patients and the surgeon. I found that there was very little patient interaction. There was no time to talk with people. You’ve often got so much to do that you just have to walk away and get things done, and that’s not what I wanted.”
Family medicine, Dr. Lacorazza said, proved to be a much better fit for him.
“You get to talk to people and take your time with them,” he said. “You can listen and work with them. You get a taste of everything as a family practitioner and you’re involved in every step of your patient’s care. That’s important to me.”
Before joining the staff at Elk Regional Health Center, Dr. Lacorazza performed extensive research on diabetes, including whether the use of a three-drug combination to treat the disease was effective, safe and sustainable. He has also performed cutting-edge research on the effects of glucose variability on the organs.
Originally from California, Dr. Lacorazza has family in Kansas, Connecticut and California. He now lives in St. Marys – a choice he said he is pleased with.
“I find this community to be very welcoming and the people here friendly,” he said. “But the biggest reason I chose St. Marys, as opposed to a larger community or a city, was that there is a better system for care in place here. I can see people as an out-patient, follow their care if they need to go to the hospital, and follow up with them again as an out-patient. My patients are going to get excellent continuity of care here and that means a lot to me.”
Dr. Lacorazza earned his medical degree from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine at the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, NY. He performed residencies and an internship in general surgery and family practice at the School of Osteopathic Medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Stratford, NJ. Dr. Lacorazza is a member of the American Osteopathic Association.