Mary Blattner had a different idea of what it means to be a successful doctor when she first started in the medical field.
This week, a 75-year-old Blattner retires from 45 years of serving as a dermatologist in Greeley, knowing she achieved the ultimate goal of a doctor: earning the trust of her patients.
“When you are a young doctor, and boy, was this true of me, it’s easy to think everything is about you,” Blattner said. “Gradually, you learn that success in medicine is measured by how you care for your patient … body, mind and soul. I’ve learned that if patients know that you would do anything to help them, you’ve achieved the ultimate goal of being a doctor to the best of your ability.”
Blattner felt she was supposed to be a doctor since she was a child. She wasn’t the only one who envisioned it either.
As a freshman at Harding College in Kansas, Blattner met with her pre-med advisor. He took one look at her and said, “You’re going to be a doctor.”
But she hesitated because she wanted to prioritize being a wife and mother one day. Blattner initially chose to pursue a chemistry degree rather than pre-med. It wasn’t until her senior year that she realized she needed to decide on a profession, leading her back on the path to her childhood dream.
She walked into the same pre-med advisor’s office, and asked, “Is it too late?” and he helped her earn enough credits to be eligible for medical school and fill out an application for the Medical College Admission Test, an exam required for admission into medical schools. And the rest was history, she said.
“You could kind of say it was sort of built into the cards,” Blattner said.
She returned to her home state and attended medical school at the University of Missouri, where she met her husband of 52 years. At the time, Blattner recalled her classes only being about 10% women, and the generation before her was about 1% women. Today, women outnumber men in medical schools.
She looks back at her time in medical school fondly because she loved to study, but she didn’t have a clue what she wanted to be yet.
That uncertainty led her to pursue internal medicine. She and her husband were accepted into the University of Nebraska Medical School for a residency. Back then, future doctors in an internal medicine residency lived at the hospital and had up to 40 patients at one time, Blattner said.
Although set up to be one of three chief residents in her last year, Blattner looked to her future in internal medicine with doubts about raising a family and having a busy career. That’s when dermatology came into the picture.
At the hospital, she found the dermatologists had a sought-after schedule, coming in late and leaving early. What stuck out most was their eagerness, going out of their way to search for work in the internal medicine unit.
“What I noticed about them was that they truly loved what they did,” Blattner said. “I’m like, ‘This is ridiculous, we are praying that we get through the day without taking a really hard case, and you guys are looking for it.’ ”
Through a connection with the head of a program and an eye for recognizing skin condition patterns, Blattner landed a residency in the field. It quickly became a natural fit that stuck.
Dr. Mary Blattner treats a patient's hand during an appointment on Friday, June 27. Blattner's last day at UCHealth Greeley Medical Center will be Monday, concluding a 45-year career as a dermatologist.(Stephanie Burchett/For The Tribune)Blattner felt she was ahead of the times when it came to dermatology. Her early career decision to pursue dermatology over other fields like internal medicine received ridicule. It wasn’t until long after that her field of choice became more popular.
‘Not a changer’ even when changes come her way
In 1980, Blattner and her husband moved to Greeley. The Greeley Medical Clinic on 16th Street wanted to recruit Blattner’s husband as a nose, ear and throat specialist.
They didn’t want to hire his wife, though.
Luckily, a dermatologist who was desperate for a partner overheard this conversation and convinced the clinic to hire Blattner. She then began her first and only job after completing medical school and a residency, starting a practice on July 1, 1980.
In 2010, the Greeley Medical Clinic became part of the Poudre Valley Health System’s new medical group. Two years later, the Poudre Valley Health System merged with the University of Colorado Hospital to create what is now known as UCHealth.
Blattner stuck around through the changes, eventually caring for patients at UCHealth Peakview Medical Center in west Greeley. For the past five years, she practiced out of the UCHealth Greeley Medical Center, a new multispecialty clinic facility east of the UCHealth Greeley Hospital.
Blattner never wanted to start her own practice or leave what she has known because she’s “not a changer,” she said. She enjoyed having a work-life balance to raise two daughters and travel the world.
“For me, the grass is not greener on the other side,” Blattner said. “God made me a doctor, period. When you get to be 75, you look back over your life and you’re like, ‘Would you have changed anything?’ My answer is no.”
And even though owning a practice would have meant more money, her career was never about the dollar amount — it has always been about her patients.
University of Northern Colorado President Andy Feinstein has been a patient of Blattner’s since he came to Greeley in 2018. He went to her for treatment related to a pre-cancerous condition on his face but left with a friend.
When Feinstein walked into the clinic over the years, Blattner always greeted him with a “smile and a sense of humor,” on top of an incredible bedside manner of explaining dermatology. Even when his appointments would sometimes take only minutes to complete, she would spend at least half an hour checking in.
“She was just this breath of fresh air,” Feinstein said. “I realized this is somebody who really genuinely cares about the people in our community and was willing to take the time to talk about me as a person, not just me as a patient. I felt this is what health care should be, right?”
Alma Arredondo, the manager of office operations of the UCHealth Dermatology Clinic in Greeley, noticed the impact Blattner has had on patients like Feinstein, especially in her final weeks on the job. She said patients scheduled last-minute appointments just to say goodbye or bring her flowers.
“Over the past few months, there hasn’t been a day that goes by that tears aren’t shed by either herself or her patients,” Arredondo said. “This goes to show the impact she has made in many lives over the years. She has dedicated her life to providing great patient care and forming lifelong relationships.”
Over 45 years, Blattner has also experienced firsthand the many changes in technology and medicine.
Technological advances over the decades, like going from paper to virtual charts, stand out to Blattner as a big shift in health care. Technology allowed Blattner to connect with patients and bring her work along when she traveled the world.
Enhancements in medicine, however, transformed the lives of doctors and their patients.
She has seen the benefits through the eyes of her patients who went on Humira, a prescription drug used to treat inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis.
Blattner has treated thousands of patients, including multiple generations, with Accutane, what she calls “the wonder drug,” for more than 42 years. The generation of dermatologists before her had nothing significant to offer patients struggling with cystic acne, she said.
“Now, I have moms and dads that I treated when they were 15 … bringing in their kids with acne because their lives were changed by Accutane, and they want that for their children,” Blattner said.
Blattner has also enjoyed seeing the response patients have to advancements in immunotherapies for cancer. Metastatic melanoma used to have low survival rates, but today, it is mostly curable.
‘Bittersweet’ departure
Daniel Zenk, a UCHealth internal medicine physician in Greeley for the past 30 years, has worked with Blattner since the beginning of his career. He called Blattner’s “bittersweet” retirement the “end of a legacy in Greeley.”
“Dr. Mary has been loved and trusted by her dermatology patients for over 40 years,” Zenk said. “She considers her patients family. She has always gone the extra mile for her ‘family’ of patients. We will all miss seeing her here at UCHealth Greeley Medical Center.”
During her exit, Blattner took the time to thank every single person she has worked with from the past to the present, including administrators, nurses, interpreters, receptionists and more. She plans to take it “day by day” in her retirement. However, many patients and colleagues aren’t ready to say goodbye just yet, inviting her to join their clubs and stay in touch.
Although Feinstein and other patients believe Blattner is irreplaceable in the community, Blattner ensures UCHealth patients remain in capable hands with doctors Jennifer Perryman and Samita Shah.
As the community prepares for its next generation of doctors, especially with the new osteopathic medical college coming to UNC, Feinstein hopes they can look to Blattner’s lifelong career for inspiration.
“I hope that those future doctors learn about the balance of health care and personal relationships that Mary has shown over her career,” he said.
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