Growing up in southern Ohio, Gerirose “Rosie” Gooding, MD, a surgeon with Hendricks Surgical Associates, says she was always drawn to working in healthcare. “I knew I liked science,” she said. “But even from an early age, I wanted to help people. Healthcare seemed a natural combination of those two.”
Dr. Gooding set out to be a surgeon and started her schooling at Wright State University. During freshman year, she met her husband, Brian, who is an Indiana native. Once she graduated from undergrad, the two married, moved to Indiana, and haven’t looked back. Dr. Gooding attended medical school, did her residency, and got her first job here in Indiana. They also added four children to their family during that time!
Their two oldest were born while Dr. Gooding was in medical school. The story of how they came to be born at Hendricks Regional Health (as were all their children) is also the story of how Dr. Gooding came to be a surgeon here. “I needed an OB-GYN,” she said. “We lived in Plainfield, near Brian’s family. I asked my mother-in-law if she knew of any doctors locally because she had lived here for a long time. A family friend sang the praises of Dr. Michelle Fenoughty (prior to becoming our President & CEO, Dr. Fenoughty was a practicing OB-GYN)! So, I became one of Dr. Fenoughty’s patients and our family started seeing doctors in the Hendricks system. During my third pregnancy, which occurred while I was in residency, Dr. Fenoughty encouraged me to work at Hendricks because she knew I’d be looking for a job soon. Hendricks checked so many of our family’s boxes: we wanted to stay local; it was the size hospital I wanted to practice at; and I had wonderful experiences there as a patient.”
Now with a few years under her belt, Dr. Gooding says she has no doubts she made the right decision. “Great people work here – I often feel I’m working with extended family,” she said. “The culture and values here are great. Everything works together to create exceptional experiences for our patients. I’m so happy with how everything has worked out.”
While at Hendricks, Dr. Gooding has taken on some extra responsibilities to guide improvements in overall patient care. She joined the Ancillary Pharmacy and Therapeutics medical committee and held the role of assistant chair until chair Dr. Ryan Van Donselaar was promoted to Chief Medical Officer in 2023. Her peers asked Dr. Gooding to take over as chair, placing her on the Medical Executive Committee, a group of physicians who dedicate their time to their demanding clinical practice roles, to serve as the guiding structure for Hendricks’ medical staff.
More recently, she was part of a small group that championed the addition of robotic surgery to Hendricks. “There are so many benefits to bringing robotic surgery to Hendricks,” said Dr. Gooding. “For patients, the system has some extra capabilities not available with traditional laparoscopic surgery, which results in a less invasive procedure and quicker recovery. Some surgeries that we would typically do open can also now be done minimally invasive. For surgeons, the ergonomics of robotic surgeries are a lot nicer to surgeons’ bodies so we can hopefully work longer and more comfortably.”
Dr. Gooding says the technology has brought some interesting questions from patients. “When I talk with patients about robotic surgery, some think that a robot is similar to artificial intelligence, and with the push of a button, the robot is going to do the surgery,” she said. “That’s not what this is. I am driving every action the robot takes. It’s still me physically performing the actual surgery.”
Dr. Gooding is proud of the leadership she is providing at Hendricks, but she is most proud of the beautiful family she and Brian have created. “Brian and I are the youngest in our families,” she said. “Part of our decision around when we wanted to start our family involved giving our children the opportunity to know their grandparents. It was really important to us.”
Sadly, Dr. Gooding’s father passed when her second child was just three months old. While she mourns the connection her children never got to have, she feels fortunate they have good relationships with Brian’s parents who live nearby, and her mother and brothers who still live in Ohio.
This is a big year for her family. Their oldest started high school while their youngest is now in kindergarten! “This year is going to be fun,” said Dr. Gooding. “My mom heart is trying to keep up with how fast they’re growing.”
