Meet the Doctors – Alicia R. Register, MD, FACS

Welcome to “Meet the Surgeon,” where we are shining a spotlight on a member of our surgical team, Alicia Register, MD, FACS. Dr. Register is a general surgeon here at Crisp Regional, and she said being a surgeon has been her life’s dream.

“I’ve always wanted to be a surgeon my whole life,” said Dr. Register. “I don’t know why, but I was that five-year-old who said I wanted to be a surgeon. It’s kind of always been my life goal. And what I love about it now is that I’m able to help my neighbors and community in a way that few others can. I’m just one part of the village that helps my community in a way that is really impactful, and it motivates me to keep doing what I’m doing.”

She attended the University of Georgia for her undergraduate degree before going on to the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. After completing medical school, she started her residency at Medical Center Navicent Health in Macon. During her residency, she had a rotation here at Crisp Regional that was part of her motivation to work here after completing her residency.

“I worked here for a month during my residency, and I just loved it,” said Dr. Register. “I loved the community. I loved the people that I worked with in the OR, and ultimately that’s who I end up working with now.”

And while that surgical rotation led her to Cordele, Dr. Register knew she would always find her way to working somewhere in South Georgia.

“My husband is from South Georgia, and he’s a farmer,” said Dr. Register “He said (we can go) wherever you want to go for training, but I want to live in South Georgia.”

Now that she’s here, Dr. Register said that her, her husband, and their two sons love spending time outdoors.

“We just enjoy being outdoors, camping, fishing, water sports in the summer, the lake,” said Register. “And again, that’s why Cordele—this is the only hospital that’s got a lake close enough to actually enjoy. You have it all here, so that’s nice that you don’t have to go off on the weekends, even when you’re on call.”

In addition to spending time on the lake, Dr. Register said you can often find her eating lunch at local restaurants like Surchero’s in Cordele and Café 41 in Vienna, where she lives.

While Dr. Register covers a variety of surgical issues, she has a special interest in thyroid surgery, which, as she explains, is able to provide a service to the community that they otherwise would have to drive to a specialist for.

“Nowadays, with medical training, especially surgical training, everybody is going into a subspeciality, and so the less surgeons that are becoming true general surgeons in these smaller community hospitals that feel comfortable doing these more unique or advanced surgeries, the less the community is able to keep their healthcare closer to home,” said Dr. Register. “That means more travel, sometimes two or three hours to get something done. I thankfully was able to do enough thyroid and parathyroidectomies in residencies where I felt comfortable being able to do them on my own here. They’re fun cases, just the act of doing it, it’s fun. It’s gratifying to immediately fix something, and it’s not something a lot of true general surgeons do anymore.”

While Dr. Register said there are some cases where patients may have to be referred to a specialist like an ENT, with her experience, she has able to offer a service more locally in many cases.

“Having that tool in my pocket to be able to offer the basic, non-complicated thyroidectomies here, and you not having to go to some specialist when it’s not really necessary is really nice,” said Dr. Register. “It all goes back to that gratification of helping your neighbor, helping your community, and seeing how you are able to contribute back and keeping your community running healthy and well.

And just as her experience in thyroid surgeries is able to better serve her community, Dr. Register believes that the new surgery center will be able to do that as well.

“The new surgery center is going to be so vital to the future of our hospital,” said Dr. Register. “It really brings in the newest, best operative equipment to help us do your surgery safer and more efficiently. It’s really just bringing us up to the modern era. We’ve got bigger ORs, better equipment, more space, and we’re adding more ORs, so now we’ll be able to offer more surgeries in one day. That means less wait time for our patients to wait to get their surgeries scheduled, so instead of having to wait a month, it may be two or three weeks. Also, one of the ORs is going to be capable to be used as a heart cath lab, so now we’re going to be able to offer a whole new service that we haven’t been able to offer before. This is a really great investment, and it’s going to be a great thing for the community to keep the hospital running and thriving and not having to travel to get your healthcare done.”

The community aspect and the people here are what brought Dr. Register here to this area, and she said this personal connection is important to her as a physician as well.

“I genuinely take your care personally,” said Dr. Register. “I am personally invested in your best interest. I want to know everything about you, even the social aspects of your life that may affect your care. All of it matters.

“I want people to know that I’m a part of the community (just like them). I’m here to help serve my community and keep it running and keep it healthy. We all depend on each other. Just like my patients depend on me, I depend on my patients and the role they play in the community. We’re all here to try to help each other out.”