Business

Business Brief: New physician’s assistant

PETER BOODY PHOTO | New physician’s assistant Islander John Reilly.

John Reilly of Shelter Island, formerly a building contractor with his own firm that handled commercial and high-end residential jobs across Long Island, earned certification as a physician’s assistant this summer and is now on the staff of Dr. Scot Kolsin’s practice at the town’s Medical Center. The office is operated by Island Urgent Care Group, which has eight locations in Suffolk County.

Mr. Reilly, 55, joined the Shelter Island Red Cross Ambulance Corps about six years ago as a driver “and absolutely loved it,” he said in an interview. He became an emergency medical technician and went on to become a critical care EMT for the ambulance. With his contracting business in decline, he decided in 2006 to take pre-med courses wherever and whenever he could, at SUNY, Suffolk Community College and online over the course of a year and a half.

For a time, he considered getting his medical degree but he was told by an official with SUNY’s PA program that he’d “be a patient by the time I finished my residency,” he said, because it takes “forever to become a doctor.” It took him about 25 months to obtain his master’s degree as a PA at Touro College in Bay Shore. After earning it earlier this year, he took the state exam and was certified to practice in New York in July.

While he studied, he lived in Bay Shore either at a friend’s house while the friend was in Florida or on his boat. He returned to his home on Shelter Island on weekends “but nobody ever saw me because I was always studying,” he said.

Of his new job, he said, “I love it,” because of the range of patients he sees on Shelter Island. “Everything’s so different,” he added.

As part of a large group with specialists and advanced equipment, he’s able to send patient files through the group for other opinions, he said.