After more than 25 years of extended work weeks and nights on call, Dr. Michael Kendrick, Bend’s longest-practicing neurosurgeon, is anticipating some rest and relaxation.

”I want to do the everyday things like go to the barbershop and walk my dog downtown,” Kendrick said.

At age 60, Kendrick retired a little earlier than he anticipated for a couple of reasons. He was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and has a back injury that makes it hard for him to stand for long periods of time. His colleagues in the Central Oregon medical community have referred to Kendrick, the second board-certified neurosurgeon in Bend, one of Bend’s medical ”visionaries.”

They credit him with bringing advanced neurosurgical technology to the region and helping create a local physicians organization that eventually led to the creation of a local managed care plan.

Kendrick arrived in Central Oregon in 1979 after spending two years at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash. He completed his neurosurgery residency and a fellowship in neuropathology at Stanford University Medical Center in California. He also did a neurology fellowship in London.

”A couple fellows had raved about (Bend) and talked about what a great place it was to live,” said Kendrick, an avid fly fisherman, hunter and snow skier.

”And first and foremost (Bend) is a first-rate medical community – even then.”

It’s a community on which Kendrick leaves his mark.

Garth Jackson, chief executive of the Orthopaedic and Neurosurgical Center of the Cascades (ONCC), said Kendrick was instrumental in bringing Stealth technology, a computer that uses MRI and CT images to guide surgeons during surgery, to Bend several years ago.

”At the time he brought that technology here, it wasn’t the type of technology you would usually see in a community (of this size),” Jackson said.

Having such technology has made it easier to recruit other talented surgeons to the area. The combination prompted Money magazine to recently rank ONCC one of the top five best places for neck and back surgery on the West Coast, Jackson said.

Dr. Mark Belza, another neurosurgeon at ONCC, said he chose to come to Bend 13 years ago because of the quality of neurosurgical care.

Kendrick also learned how to do stereotactic radiosurgery, which is a way of delivering a localized beam of radiation to something like a brain tumor, before such a treatment was available in Central Oregon. It has been available here for about five years.

”I got privileges over at (Legacy) Emanuel Hospital in Portland,” Kendrick said. ”I’d catch a 5:15 a.m. flight here to Portland, do the procedure and then come back.”

Trying new things is part of what has kept Kendrick’s career fun, he said. Wanting to be a doctor since he was a child, Kendrick said he was drawn to neurosurgery because of its complexity and the intellectual challenges it presented.

But Kendrick has also been interested in broader issues in health care.

Patricia Gibford, chief executive of Clear Choice Health Plans, said Kendrick was instrumental in organizing the Central Oregon Independent Practice Association (COIPA). The organization now boasts more than 500 members from Hood River to Bend to John Day. Kendrick was the association’s first president.

”It presented a united front to deal with the managed care issue,” Gibford said. ”It was really a response to the upsurge in managed care happening all over the state.”

Kendrick said he and others valued the strong health care system Bend had and wanted to keep it that way. The formation of COIPA in 1995 led to the birth of Central Oregon Health Services, a managed care company owned by local hospitals and physicians. The company administers the Oregon Health Plan and operates Clear Choice Health Plans.

He also served as chair of St. Charles Medical Center-Bend’s bylaws and credentialing committee for 15 years. The committee is responsible for granting hospital privileges to doctors in the area.

These additional responsibilities often meant 80-hour work weeks but were also rewarding, Kendrick said.

”I like to see things work,” Kendrick said. ”I get enjoyment out of watching things develop and it’s hard for me to say no if I know I can be of some help.”

When it came to his patients, retired neurosurgeon Dr. Norwyn Newby, Kendrick’s partner for 24 years, said Kendrick had an ability to simplify complex medical problems so that patients could understand. Kendrick recruited Newby to Bend after working with him in Tacoma.

”He wouldn’t let a patient leave confused or distraught,” Newby said.

Now a patient himself, Kendrick said his experience as physician has helped him to ask the right questions. Diagnosed with prostate cancer in September, he has been traveling to Stanford University Medical Center, on recommendation of his Bend physician, for a new cancer treatment. The treatment involves stereotactic radiosurgery, the same treatment Kendrick has used on patients with brain tumors.

He plans to keep his physicians license and do some consulting. He’s looking forward to spending time with grand children, family and his wife of 38 years, Paula, improving his golf skills and learning Spanish.

Leaving the medical profession at a time that many in the industry deem as a crisis period, Kendrick did offer a few words of advice to new or young physicians.

”A lot of crises work themselves out,” the neurosurgeon said. ”If you arrive to work, be nice to people, and take good care of your patients the rest of the stuff will usually take care of itself.”

Kelly Kearsley can be reached at 541-383-0348 or at kkearsley@bendbulletin.com.