March 31, 2025
William Mercer, MD, CMD, the 2025 Medical Director of the Year, vividly remembers how he got involved with post-acute and long-term care and with PALTmed (then known as AMDA). The local hospital, which had a long-term care skilled unit, approached him and asked if he’d like to be the medical director. He was a family physician at the time.
He later heard about AMDA and attended his first annual conference in 1994. As he explains: “I can remember sitting there at the lectures and saying to myself, ‘Oh my God, this is going to be tough. There's so much to learn. I don't know if I can do this.’” But by taking advantage of all the education and resources the organization had to offer—including participating in the Core Curriculum and becoming a certified medical director—he was able to get up to speed.
He highly recommends the Core Curriculum, which ”really shows you what you need to know as a medical director. It's not just, how do you take care of constipation in the nursing home or how do you take care of confusion,” he says. “It's how does the nursing home work? What are the financial issues? What's the legislation in your state? It really gives you a lot of tips.”
Dr. Mercer has also benefited greatly from his participation in PALTmed committees over the years. For example, his work on the State Policy and Advocacy Committee helped him get to know his legislators and get involved in efforts to start a medical director registry for the state.
Those efforts have paid off in more ways than one. One of the letters supporting Dr. Mercer’s nomination for Medical Director of the Year came from Joe Manchin, the former U.S. senator from West Virginia, who said, “Dr. Mercer is instrumental in helping improve the quality of life of those residing in long-term care in Ohio County.”
His work in the county includes Project Hope, a volunteer program he founded in 2006 to provide health care to homeless members of the Wheeling community. He also coordinated the Joe Too Cool to Smoke/Vape program, which he established through a partnership with Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz’s widow Jeannie. He admits he is “obsessed” with Snoopy (also known as Joe Cool) and even wore one of his more than 300 Snoopy ties when he accepted his award at PALTC25.
All of his activities don’t stop Dr. Mercer from thinking about the future. As he gets older, he’s looking for physicians who are interested in PALTC to replace him. “We need more of our young people to experience [PALTC],” he says. “Once they do, there are going to be some who say that's what's for them.”
One of his residents, Emily Campbell, DO, attended PALTC25 after participating in the 2024 Futures Program. “It's a great title. It's the future of what we do. We need more people to do this,” he notes. And if Dr. Mercer has his way, they will.
Watch this video of Dr. Mercer discussing his award, his involvement with PALTmed, and more.
