Our Team, Our Strength - Introducing Dr. Francesco Mulé, New NHH Emergency Medicine Specialist

Attracting full-time Emergency Department (ED) physicians can be a challenge for any hospital, but for small community hospitals the competition posed by larger centres makes it particularly difficult.

When the NHH team heard of a US-based physician specialized in Emergency Medicine was interested in relocating to the area, they quickly organized an opportunity to demonstrate all that NHH had to offer. By January, 2011, NHH had succeeded in recruiting a new full-time Emergency Medicine physician--positive news for NHH and the physician involved.

Born and raised in New York City, Dr. Francesco Mulé is the son of Italian immigrants who left Sicily for New York in the 1960s. After completing medical school in Canada at Newfoundland’s Memorial University, Dr. Mule returned to the U.S. where he completed residencies in both general pediatrics and emergency medicine. Dual certified in both specialties, he began his career as an attending physician in the Emergency Department at North Shore Long Island Jewish Medical Centre in New York City.

Canada beckoned again, however, when Dr. Mulé’s wife, Dr. Heather Lemon, suggested relocating closer to her family near Whitby, Ontario. With young children of their own (Luca, 4 and Liam, 2), the move made a lot of sense for all involved, and the pair began to research their options.

When an opportunity in the Durham region didn’t materialize, Dr. Mulé cast his eyes to surrounding communities and, with help from Health Force Ontario, he connected with Robert Biron and Chief of Staff Dr. David Broderick at Northumberland Hills.

“For me, it was a perfect fit,” he noted. “I wanted an opportunity that would permit me to use my skills to their full scope within the context of a consistent, dedicated team. I was drawn to emergency medicine because of its complexity and urgency, but the academic centre I was working at in the US didn’t always offer that. There is no better place to get exposure to a broad range of medical issues and complexities than in a community ED, and NHH fit the bill. The dedication local GPs have for their patients in this community is most impressive, and it marries well with my own model of practice.”

“This has been a win-win for everyone,” agrees Dr. Broderick. “We are shoring up our hospital’s gateway--our Emergency Department--with a core team of physicians, general practitioners and specialists alike, who are interested in emergency medicine and trained to deal with the increasing complexity we see at NHH each and every day. Dr. Mule has been a great complement to our team. We welcome the depth and breadth of training he brings and his interest in the complicated cases we are seeing more of each and every day here at NHH.”