Dr. Ked Davis didn't always want to go into medicine, but he's happy that that is the path he ended up following. Davis was recently voted "Magnolia's Favorite Physician" in a contest that brought in 1,650 votes from local patients. He will also receive a commemorative brick in the Magnolia Regional Medical Center's Terrace of Honor.
Named for his great-grandfather (no, Ked is not a nickname), Davis was born and raised in Mt. Holly, where he graduated from high school. He attended college at SAU, where he studied biology and chemistry, and intended to work with wildlife. At that point, it had not occurred to him that medical school was a possibility.
"A really good friend of mine wanted to be a doctor, and I got to looking into it. I thought about it and prayed about it, and looked up all the stuff you had to do to get in. I had all the prerequisite classes, and I had a degree. So I took the MCAT, which is a screening test, basically. I applied and got in, and the rest is history," he said.
"Chambliss and I both went to SAU, then we went to med school together [at UAMS], did residency together. So we both came back here, set up shop together. We have been here since August of 2008," Davis said. Dr. James Chambliss is originally from Bearden.
Chambliss and Davis are family medicine practitioners. "We see anything from newborns to those in nursing homes. From the womb to the tomb, I always say. And then I'm the medical director for Life Touch Hospice. I took it over in October," Davis said, which means trips to El Dorado on a regular basis. "I stay busy. I go to El Dorado a lot, to the Hospice House over there."
When some remodeling is done, Davis and Chambliss will move to the former location of The Rails restaurant. "It's a nice building. We've just outgrown this place," Davis said of the current location at 1010 N. Dudney. "We're bumping elbows over here all day long."
Outside work, Davis enjoys hunting and fishing whenever he can. He also does welding and used to have his own welding business. "I don't want anybody to call me to do welding," he said, laughing. The hobby that takes up most of his time is gardening. "I have a big garden. Corn, tomatoes, potatoes, turnip greens, squash, eggplant, peppers, beans, peas, whatever I can fit in there. It's a full-time job in the summer."
Davis said that having Dr. Fred Murphy as the hospitalist has made his job easier. "Before, everybody saw their own inpatients, too. Now, the hospital hired Dr. Murphy, who does the inpatients, so we don't have to see our hospital patients anymore. If I have a patient in the hospital, I call Dr. Murphy and he admits them and takes care of them while they're in the hospital. When they get out of the hospital, they come back to me, which is wonderful. Everybody loves it. And, of course, that's the way the national trend has been going for years. It's freed up a lot of time."
Davis's "beautiful wife" Cristy has a grown daughter and a son who is a fourth grader at Taylor Elementary. They attend Central Baptist Church.
Of the medical practice, Davis said, "We love what we do. It's a blessing every day to come to work and do what we do. God's been good to us, that's for sure."