Working Mom: Finding the balace between running an OB/GYN practice and a home

It was something she always wanted to do since she was a little girl, be a doctor and care for women. She didn’t have any family members who were doctors, only an aunt who was a nurse.  Today Dr. Kimberly Biss,45, has her own obstetrics and gynecology practice called New Beginnings Obstetrics and Gynecology in St. Petersburg.

Biss isn’t only a doctor, she’s also a wife and a mother. She’s been married to her husband Jerry for almost 20 years. She has two children Zachary, 15 in tenth grade and KaLeigh, 13 in eighth grade.

hasn’t been easy being a working mom. Biss’ days are busy. She sees about 30 patients a day and delivers between 20 to 25 babies a month.

Se has missed out on some things with her kids, but she loves what she does and has been able to provide for her family. “I did miss my kids’ first words and first steps because of work, but I made a decision to do what I do,” said Biss. Her and her husband decided they wanted to have one of them home with the kids, so her husband is a stay-at-home dad.

Biss grew up in New Jersey, raised by a single parent. She worked hard and always got good grades throughout school. She will tell you herself she was the kid, who at Christmas time would get excited when she got science books for presents.

Her medical schooling started at an all women’s school, Mount Holyoke College where she earned a B.A in Biology. She went on to earn her medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. She did an internship in General Surgery at Emory University of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. Biss then completed an OB/Gyn residency at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Florida. In 1998 she started private practice and in 2007 she branched off with her own practice.

Because her practice is small, she not only works Monday through Friday, but is on call every other night or every third night. “I’m not home a lot,” say Biss.   

On a typical day, Biss she gets up around 5:30 a.m. and is the first one at her office around 7:30 a.m. If she isn’t in surgery, she will catch up on paperwork and look at charts. Between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. she sees patients. She does have a two-hour lunch, but most of the time she is working through lunch doing scheduled c-sections or other procedures.  In her office there is one other doctor and a nurse practitioner along with a midwife. Biss has a staff of 12 including her and the other practitioners. On a typical day they will see about 90 patients a day.  One day a week she will perform major surgeries including robotic hysterectomies. All her procedures and delivers of babies are at Bayfront.

If Biss isn’t delivering a baby or having an unexpected emergency, she will arrive home around 6:30 p.m.

Her kids know they never want to be in the medical field because of the long hours their mom puts in, but they think it is neat that their mom is a doctor and delivers babies.

Even though she does work a lot, the time she is off she spends with her family. You can find her and her husband watching their son Zack, an aspiring country music singer, as her performs at local restaurants throughout Tampa Bay. “He wants to be a country music star,” says Biss. “His dad is his agent.” You also might find the family at swim meets with their daughter KaLeigh, or at hockey games watching the Lightning play, as they are season ticket holders.  “We spend a lot of time with kids.” Their family just got back from an Alaskan cruise. “Usually two times a year we will take family vacations,” said Biss. “We are always together. It will be tough when they go to college.”

Biss’ most memorable moment so far has been helping deliver Florida’s first sextuplets in September 2007. “It was amazing, “ says Biss. “Each baby had it’s own team of doctors.” Helping deliver six babies was something Biss will never forget.

Most of the time Biss’ job is a happy experience, but there have been some sad days, but Biss says the good days outweigh the bad.

She says it is hard for her to encourage anyone though to go into her profession. “I love what I do and love taking care of my patients, but all the other headaches I don’t love,” say Biss. She says when you go to school you learn about the medical care of a patient, but now you have to know the business end and deal with administrative things and the laws.  “There is so much you have to document and so much data entry today. I sometimes feel I am not doing what I set out to do, being a physician and taking care of patients.”

Despite these frustrations, Biss is living her dream and taking care of patients something she takes pride in and looks forward to each day, she said.