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Hinsdale doctor keeps busy with orthopaedics
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Charles Bush-Joseph, who is team physician for the White Sox baseball team, hosts a party for the White Sox trainers and medical staff in his HInsdale home Saturday. | James C. Svehla~for Sun-Times Media
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Grew up: in the Detroit area.
His wife Vicky: was a corporate lawyer before going into adoption law. She is an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School, her alma mater.
Their children: a junior at Hinsdale Central High School, a junior at University of Southern California, and a senior at Georgetown University
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Updated: November 26, 2012 6:33AM
HINSDALE — Hinsdale resident Dr. Charles A. Bush-Joseph is a busy man.
As an orthopedic surgeon with Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, Bush-Joseph does more than 400 surgeries a year. He also is a professor at Rush University Medical Center, the head team physician for the Chicago White Sox, and associate team physician for the Chicago Bulls.
Bush-Joseph discovered how much he enjoyed sports medicine in his fourth year at University of Michigan Medical School.
“The smart guys were going into internal medicine, becoming cardiologists and renal physicians,” he said.
But during his last rotation, in orthopedic surgery, Bush-Joseph treated athletes and sports injuries.
“It was an ‘ah ha!’ moment,” Bush-Joseph said. “I thought, I love this.”
He specialized in orthopaedic surgery during his residency at Rush University, and got a fellowship to Cincinnati Sports Medicine and Orhopaedic Center.
Early in his career, he served as the physician for high school teams, including Morton East, Morton West and Leyden. He gained prominence as his practice expanded to include college athletes. When he heard the White Sox baseball club was looking for a new physician, Bush-Joseph applied and got the job in 2003.
As a team physician, “I work closely with the athletic trainers (and) with the physical therapists,” Bush-Joseph said.
In some ways, doctoring a professional athlete is no different than any other patient.
In other ways, it’s a lot more pressure, because “the stakes are higher,” Bush-Joseph said.
“The general manager and team ownership have a right to know the medical condition of their players, what their treatment and rehabilitation will be, because they are paying the bills,” he said, but noting the athlete still has a right to the confidentiality of the standard doctor-patient relationship.
Bush-Joseph also serves on the Major League Baseball Medical Advisory Board, which advises the baseball commissioner on emerging trends in the training and medical care of athletes.
Bush-Joseph spends four days a week “purely on patients,” and they are 10- to 12-hour days, he said.
His wife Vicky also joined the White Sox employees and their families on trips to Boston, California and Houston in 2005 when the White Sox won the World Series.
“That was one of the funnest three weeks we ever had,” Bush-Joseph said.
The couple has only one of their three children still at home. John plays football for Hinsdale Central High School, so Friday nights are spent at the football field.
