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By PAUL CATALA

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 21, 2008

PLANT CITY - The care and attention has been so good that for the past 20 years, 92-year-old Mildred Carlton has traveled an hour-and-a-half each way to see her physician, John Saranko.

It's the dedication and commitment to his patients - some, like Carlton, willing to go out of their way to see him - that helped Saranko become the Florida Academy of Family Physicians' 2008 Family Physician of the Year.

Riding with her daughter, Joyce West, Carlton travels 84 miles from rural Manatee County to Saranko's Plant City office to get treatment for her arthritis. She said the trips are well worth the care and concern Saranko offers.

"He's just a good doctor and a good man," Carlton said after a recent appointment. "He's interested in his patients, and he takes time with them."

Although Saranko is the first to acknowledge he's concerned about the health and welfare of those in his care, he is last to admit he deserves his accolades.

A nominating committee from the Florida Academy of Family Physicians - a medical association made up of family physicians, resident physicians and medical students from across the state - selected Saranko.

He said the decision was a "complete surprise."

"I was shocked. I was absolutely shocked," he said recently between patients at his Family Practice Center office at 507 W. Alexander St. "It's such an amazing award. I looked at the CVs curriculum vitae of past winners, and I'm startled I was chosen."

An academy official had high praise for Saranko and his treatment of patients.

"At a time when falling reimbursement and uncertainty in the medical profession distract many from just being able to practice, John Saranko is focused on the patient," said Tad Fisher, the academy's executive vice president. "Dr. Saranko is simply a force of nature, as well as grace under fire. He is a remarkable man whose love of family and patients leaves a legacy for future family physicians to follow. He is truly second to none."

Saranko, 63, a Tampa native who was raised near Lithia in Edison Junction, has spent nearly his entire 28-year career with family practice in Plant City. Over the years, he has treated many of Plant City's residents as one of six physicians at the Family Practice Center.

But medicine wasn't his first career choice.

"I got interested in medicine while I was in the Marines. After I got out, I worked for TECO Tampa Electric Co. for a year," said Saranko, a 1971 graduate of Clemson University. "I was going to be an electrical engineer until I took my first math class. I decided maybe I should look into something else."

That "something else" led to a doctor of medicine degree from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and residency at Halifax Hospital Medical Center in Daytona Beach.

Saranko practiced solo in Plant City from 1980 to 1998, then built and opened Family Practice Center in 1998 with Gregg Gutowski, who has worked with Saranko for the past 24 years. Gutowski said Saranko's skills are so good, he uses him as his own physician, as well as for his parents.

"He just knows his patients. He treats all of them like they were his family," said Gutowski, 54. "He's a true family doctor. He's even been known to do family visits on occasion."

Although Saranko is proud of his accolades and his recent acclaim, he said those acknowledgements aren't what drive him to be the best physician he can be. He said it's the reward of knowing his patients are feeling well and they trust their health with him.

"I'm proud of being able to establish a working relationship with people in the community where I was raised," he said. "I'm blessed by God that I've been able to help patients get through some trying times, and I hope to continue doing that for a long time."

Saranko and his wife of 41 years, Patricia, have two children, Christopher, an environmental toxicologist, and Kimberlee Whitaker, and have two grandchildren, Lindsy and Samuel Saranko.

He served as a member of the board of trustees of St. Joseph's-Baptist Healthcare and the Hillsborough County Medical Association and was a Healthcare Communication & Marketing Association delegate to the Florida Medical Association. He also served as president of the medical staff at South Florida Baptist Hospital and on its board of directors. When he is not in the office, Saranko said he regularly visits his patients at South Florida Baptist.

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