Dr. Robert Burnett’s waiting room tables will soon be filled with photo albums of babies he will deliver at Whidbey General Hospital.

The albums are a tradition he started decades ago. By now, he’s delivered as many as 5,000 babies in places as diverse as California, Hawaii and Alaska.

Like most Northwesterners, Burnett , a Washington native, prefers to live within sight of water.

That’s partially why the OB/GYN decided to move to Whidbey Island. When he’s not delivering babies, he likes to go boating.

But this week, Burnett will have to put his boating aside as he begins accepting patients at his Coupeville clinic.

He felt the tug of his Northwest roots late last year and decided to respond to Whidbey General Hospital’s search for a second OB/GYN to share the load with Dr. Lucie Riederer.

“It’s really important for a community to have two obstetricians. He will provide backup for Dr. Riederer and give patients a choice of physicians,” said Scott Rhine, hospital CEO.

“Whidbey General is very pleased to have Dr. Burnett join the medical staff,” Rhine added.

Last fall, hospital commissioners determined that finding a second OB/GYN was critically important to patients — given the island location and transportation issues for pregant women who sometimes require sudden medical expertise.

The departure of Dr. Kenton L. Sizemore from Whidbey General left Dr. Riederer as the only full-time OB/GYN, and she plans to discontinue gynecological surgeries other than Cesarian sections and tubal ligations.

Dr. John Eggers, who practiced medicine on the island from 1999 to 2002, helped Riederer with the surgery case-load prior to Burnett’s arrival.

Burnett has already started work. He took “call” last weekend and delivered two babies.

His interaction with those patients has already convinced Burnett he made the right move coming to Whidbey.

“It seems like the patient population is going to be fun to take care of,” he said.

NATIVE RETURNS

Burnett is in the process of purchasing a home within 5 minutes driving distance of the hospital in Coupeville.

Burnett and his two brothers grew up in Renton and graduated from Renton High School. His father, Leroy Burnett, owned a weekly newspaper before joining the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as a linotype operator and owning several photography studios.

Robert Burnett earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Washington. He worked his way through school by teaching skiing, and said he looks forward to returning to the slopes when his schedule allows. He joined the Navy and decided on medical school, which he attended at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. He completed his residency at the Naval Hospital in Oakland.

In 1979, his medical career began with a three-year stint at the Naval Hospital in Guam. Burnett said his family grew to love the tropics and island living. When he left the Navy, Burnett took a job in Hawaii. He served the people of Kauai for 20 years before feeling the urge for a change that took him away to the soggy chill of Ketchican, Alaska, where he worked for the past three years.

He and his wife, Kathlin, an operating room nurse, have a blended family of four grown children, one grandchild and another one due within months.

COUPEVILLE CLINIC

Burnett’s new clinic in Coupe’s Village is decorated with artwork from the places he’s worked and from the Northwest. He is renovating a suite of former counseling offices in the quaint village to accommodate his medical practice. The exposed wooden beams, dormers and skylights already give the space a homey atmosphere.

“I want it to be cozy, so people will feel comfortable,” he said.

He is moving in ultasound equipment and all the modern tools for in-office procedures in obstetrics and gynecology.

The clinic will be leading-edge in handling patient information and medical records. It will be totally paperless and Internet-based, he said.

Handling all the information electronically will reap benefits for patients, who will be able to input their own data either at home or at a terminal in Burnett’s office.

Prescriptions will travel via e-mail to pharmacies to avoid problems with deciphering doctors’ writing and the time taken for turning in paperwork. Patients should be able to go to a pharmacy and find their prescriptions filled, he said.

At the hospital, Burnett will be able to pull up patient’s records in a hand-held electronic tablet, smaller than a laptop. Records will be up-to-the-minute, unlike the current system with the delay of waiting for medical transcriptionists to post physician’s notes.

Burnett said this is the direction that many government agencies the medical community deals with are heading. And insurance companies are equally eager to have uniformity of record-keeping and prompt data filings.

Burnett hopes to have everything ready next week to greet his new patients.

“I still enjoy seeing patients. I like the personal interaction,” he said.

If a patient thinks she wants to see him, Burnett says he makes every attempt to see her on the day she calls.

But he’s in the baby delivery business, so the patient may have to be willing to wait awhile in the office.

He also is flexible with patients’ preferances while giving birth, as long as there’s no threat to medical safety, he said.

“My whole goal is to have a healthy baby and mom go home,” he said.