When Dr. Phillip Crace was a boy, he would sit on a stool peering through an operating room observation window watching his mentor perform surgeries.

“It fascinated me,” Crace said. “I knew the first time I saw it that is what I wanted to do.”

Crace would regularly accompany his grandfather’s best friend, a general surgeon, to the hospital and quickly became interested in surgery.

Now Crace is the one performing the surgeries.

Crace, a Kentucky native, joined Riverland Medical Center as a general surgeon in January.

He graduated cum laude from Georgetown College in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in biology. He then graduated summa cum laude with a master’s degree in biomedical sciences from Barry University in Miami 1999.

Crace graduated in 2003 from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. He then completed a five-year general surgical residency program in Cincinnati before moving back to Kentucky.

Crace, who most recently worked at Highlands Regional Medical Center in Kentucky, said he interviewed at 12 facilities before joining Riverland.

“I really just love the people in this community,” he said.

Crace replaced Dr. Ron Gregg, who retired last year.

“It says a lot that there was a surgeon here for 30-plus years who was successful in a small town, which is what I want to do,” Crace said.

RMC is a 25-bed critical access hospital and is owned and operated by the Concordia Parish Hospital Service District.

The hospital has offered general surgeries for at least 80 years, Administrator Billy Rucker said.

Crace is the perfect surgeon to continue that service, Rucker said.

Riverland searched for a surgeon for nearly a year before choosing Crace, who Rucker said was “sent from heaven.”

“The Lord just put him in the right place at the right time,” he said.

Crace hopes to help local residents realize they do not need to travel for medical services.

“I think there are a lot of things we can do here in Ferriday so people do not need to go to Monroe or Alexandria,” Crace said. “At least give us a chance, and if you don’t like us, you can always go somewhere else.”

The response to Crace from the hospital’s staff, patients and the public has been overwhelmingly positive, Rucker said.

“I can honestly say I haven’t heard one negative thing about him,” Rucker said. “The staff likes him, the employees are satisfied and so are the patients.

“He’s already become family here.”

Crace’s family has been waiting for school to end for the year before moving to Concordia Parish from Kentucky.

His wife, Amy, and children, Charles, 6, Abigale, 5, and Jackson, 3, will arrive this week.

“They’re very excited,” he said.

Although he has been at Riverland just more than three months, Crace said Concordia Parish already feels like home.

“I can tell you my decision was the right one,” he said. “It feels like I have been here for years rather than months.”