Doctor calls retirement plans ‘a work in progress’
Hanging up his shingle after 36 years as a physician in Ramona, Dr. Robert Zgliniec said of his plans for retirement, “That’s a work in progress.”
He does have a few activities planned: golf, two family trips and a home landscape project on his one-acre property to reduce water use. He is also looking at local opportunities to donate his medical skills.
The Arch Health Partners Ramona clinic held a retirement reception for Zgliniec on June 15. He got a kick out of a humorous golf-themed decorated cake that said “Ahh retirement,” and he was able to visit with many longtime patients. The clinic had not yet selected a replacement for him, he said.
Being a doctor, he said, “was really something that I enjoyed. There’s a lot of interaction with people. Some I got to know personally.”
Zgliniec, who is originally from Detroit, Mich., graduated from Wayne State University School of Medicine in that city in 1971, and was a medical school classmate of another longtime Ramona doctor — Dr. Michael Barker.
After Zgliniec graduated from medical school in 1971, he served four years in the U.S. Navy, which brought him to San Diego in 1973. After the military, he joined a group of doctors in North Park, but then started looking up practices in the phone book and found Barker.
“I didn’t realize he was in Ramona practicing at that time,” said Zgliniec.
He spent some time at Barker’s office, but also worked part time at an office in Poway, where he and his wife, Julia, had bought a house — the same one they live in today.
Zgliniec, who practices internal medicine, found he liked the beautiful drive to Ramona and the smaller office, and decided to make the professional move up the hill, sharing office expenses with Barker. Some of his Poway patients followed him.
Over the years his medical office moved to different locations in Ramona. In 1991, Zgliniec joined the Centre for Health Care, now Arch Health Partners.
At age 72, Zgliniec said he figured it’s time to retire. While he enjoys the work, he said there are more regulations with practices and he has to spend a lot of time on a computer rather than seeing patients. He also noted that his brother, who was a physician, died last February, just three months after his semi-retirement.
Zgliniec and his wife have three adult sons, one who is a doctor for intensive care at Palomar Medical Center and Pomerado Hospital, and five grandchildren, ranging in age from 7 months to 6 years. The couple has a vacation planned to Hawaii with one son and his family, and a family golf outing in the desert.
While all three sons golf and one of them he described as being “real good,” Zgliniec said of himself: “I’m just kind of a fair golfer, but I enjoy it a lot.”