[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6234-6235]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     HONORING DR. BERTRAM W. COFFER

  (Mr. HAYES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and recognize a pillar 
in the medical community, as well as a friend, Dr. Bertram W. Coffer, 
who recently passed away.
  Coffer's medical career began in 1975 when he joined Raleigh 
Anesthesia Associates. He was 34 years old and married to the former 
Jeanne Gardner, a registered nurse he had met in a Duke University 
Medical Center operating room while working as a scrub nurse to pay his 
way through NC State University.
  He later served in the U.S. Navy as a Lieutenant Commander, had 2 
years of surgery residency at Duke, and completed his residency in 
anesthesiology at UNC-Chapel Hill. Coffer went on to become not only a 
certified anesthesiologist, but someone who brought added value to the 
care of all patients.
  Bert instituted many positive changes in the way his practice 
operated in the community hospital. Today, the American Society of 
Critical Care Anesthesiologists touts the Raleigh Practice Center/
Critical Health Systems model, whose essence reflects one of Bert 
Coffer's philosophies, which was, ``Act like a physician first, and 
always make yourself indispensable and worthwhile.'' Certainly, the 
redefinition of anesthesiology by Coffer and RPC/Critical Health 
Systems helped change the future of the specialty.
  What a dear friend and wonderful human being. Our thoughts, prayers 
and sympathy go out to Jeanne, his wife, children Bert, Natalie and 
Holly, and all their families. We will miss you, Bert.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and recognize a pillar in the 
medical community as well as a friend, Dr. Bertram W. Coffer, 66, who 
passed away on Thursday, April 10, 2008, at Rex Hospital. He was a 
native of Sanford, and predeceased by his parents, Dalton and Virginia 
Coffer, and a sister, Carol Thompson.
  Bert was a dedicated and caring physician for 43 years serving at Rex 
Hospital for the last 33 years. He was a graduate of NCSU in 1964, UNC 
Medical School in 1969. He completed a surgical residency at Duke from 
1969 until 1971 as well as an anesthesia residency at UNC in 1975. He 
began practicing in 1975 when he joined Dr. Lewis Gaskins and Raleigh 
Anesthesia Associates, which he eventually incorporated and developed 
into Critical Health Systems. One of his guiding philosophies was ``Act 
like a physician first and always make yourself indispensable and 
worthwhile''. He had a vision for the advancement of anesthesiology 
into new areas such as intensive care, critical care, pain management, 
and total patient care. He served as CEO from 1975-1996. He was a 
member of numerous boards, including the Rex Hospital Executive 
Committee and the Ravenscroft Board of Directors. He was also president 
of the Royster Medical Society in 1983 and the president of the Wake 
County Medical Society in 1986. In addition, he was an active member of 
the American Society of Anesthesiologists for over 30 years, serving on 
many committees and receiving the North Carolina Society of 
Anesthesiology's Distinguished Service Award. In 1974 he worked with 
Project Hope at the University of West Indies in Jamaica. During the 
Vietnam war era he was commissioned as a Lt. Commander and stationed at 
Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida as an anesthesiologist. As an 
NCSU alumni he was still active and established the Caldwell-Coffer 
scholarship.
  His strong commitment to his country led him to a very active role in 
politics and public policy.

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