All Rhodes Led to Excellence, Dedication and Leadership

One of nine siblings from Lewistown in central Pennsylvania, Luther V. “Pat” Rhodes III, MD, has left his mark on the Lehigh Valley with a momentous career spanning 50 years on the front lines of infectious disease care and prevention.

The son and grandson of optometrists who was given the nickname “Pat” by the nuns at his Catholic grade school in Lewistown, Mifflin County, he’s officially hanging up his white coat on March 3.

“The name Luther just didn’t go over that big in a Catholic school at the time,” Dr. Rhodes recalls of getting his nickname, which he’s gone by faithfully ever since. “They tagged me with the nickname Pat. It likely made more sense to them. And so, it took hold. My parents never resented it. None of my siblings have ever called me Luther.”

And so Pat Rhodes it was, but no matter the moniker, this region has benefited from his skill, compassion and dedication. Described by Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) colleagues as a gifted educator and a stellar clinician, Dr. Rhodes says he wants to be closer to his six remaining siblings, all of whom live in Reedsville, a small town adjacent to Lewistown. “All my siblings are nurturing, caring people,” he says, adding he’ll be happy to be closer to them and help them out when necessary.

He’ll turn 80 in May and says he’s looking forward to replacing a patient list with a to-do list.

During his tenure, Dr. Rhodes helped steer Lehigh Valley Hospital and then Lehigh Valley Health Network through a myriad of infectious diseases. From Legionnaires’ disease and HIV/AIDS to severe acute respiratory syndrome, also known as SARS, COVID and many more, he helped make sure the community was prepared and had the best available care.

Under his leadership, LVHN was designated as one of four Special Disease Units in Pennsylvania to support the care of patients with possible Ebola or other highly contagious pathogens. LVHN had an Ebola treatment area set up at Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH)–Muhlenberg, but it never saw an Ebola patient, Dr. Rhodes says. “That takes a ton of coordination and commitment,” he says. He also worked to establish the Lehigh Valley Bioterrorism Task Force.

Dr. Rhodes got his start in medicine training in traditional internal medicine. When drafted into the Navy, he was assigned largely to deliver babies on Guam as the Vietnam War was ending.

He was drawn to practice at Lehigh Valley Hospital, not only as a native Pennsylvanian, but to join his brother Michael Rhodes, MD, who had trained in surgery at LVH and was a strong advocate for LVH, which had leading-edge programs under development in trauma management.

Dr. Pat Rhodes was a resident at Lehigh Valley Hospital in 1974-75 and began practicing as an infectious disease doctor in 1975 during a fellowship in Wisconsin.

In the beginning, Dr. Rhodes established a private infectious disease practice, known as Allentown Infectious Disease Service. That practice evolved and grew and eventually became part of LVHN. It’s now Lehigh Valley Physician Group (LVPG) Infectious Diseases–1255 Cedar Crest.

In those early years, Dr. Rhodes had a solo practice. “I went to five or six hospitals every day. No snow days,” he says.

Over the years, his practice grew, adding more doctors, including Timothy Friel, MD Chair, Department of Medicine and Regional Chief Clinical Officer of Jefferson Health–Lehigh West Region and Amy Slenker, MD, Vice Chair, Quality and Patient Safety, Department of Medicine, Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases. His early hires also included Mark Knouse, MD, former chief of infectious diseases, whom he counts among his closest friends.

More doctors meant a more manageable workload. “I didn’t realize you didn’t have to be on call every night,” Dr. Rhodes says wryly. “I thought it just went with the territory.”

Infectious disease care at LVHN evolved under Dr. Rhodes. Changes included having a clinical pharmacist as part of the team for improved collaboration and care.

Dr. Rhodes also pioneered the use of telemedicine in infectious disease care at LVHN in 2011, allowing him to collaborate with doctors making rounds at other LVHN hospital campuses in the region. “That’s probably 80 percent of what I do now,” he says.“It really helps leverage the service. I work with doctors making rounds at our hospitals and co-manage patients with them.”

His impact with patients through telemedicine is not diminished because he’s not in the same room with them.

Said one telemedicine patient review last year: “Dr. Rhodes is a wonderful doctor. He listens to you. He has patience. He's so knowledgeable. He makes you feel so at ease. I would recommend him to anybody. … He's wonderful, and every time I talk to him, I get the chills afterward because he's just such a nice man, and I just want to tell anybody who has anything to do with him you're lucky to be involved with him.”

In 2013, Lehigh Valley Health Network was awarded the Magnet Prize^® from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, in recognition of LVHN's transformative use of telemedicine and the nurses that collaborated with clinicians such as Dr. Rhodes.

Dr. Rhodes’ colleagues say his contributions to infectious disease care and prevention and LVHN are as immeasurable as they are numerous.

“This has been his life,” says Dr. Friel. “He was always the first to arrive and the last to leave. He had a vocational commitment to this place, and it was always his first priority. We’re all in a better place because of him. He led us through some difficult times. He’s always put his work and commitment to patients and community first.”

Dr. Slenker says Dr. Rhodes is a technology buff whose influence on telemedicine has “changed how we practice” at LVPG Infectious Diseases. “I have always been extremely impressed with his ability to communicate with his patients,” she says.

Dr. Knouse, with LVPG Infectious Diseases, served as chief of the infectious diseases division for nine years until 2022.

“There’s an inner passion he has that’s absolutely phenomenal. It rivals anyone in the world,” Dr. Knouse says. “I think he set the standard for infectious diseases in the Lehigh Valley. Pat was one of those guys who just stood out among many physicians and clinicians. He set the bar based on his extremely hard work and his dedication to clinical excellence.”

If the Rhodes name rings more than one bell, it’s with good reason: More than one member of the Rhodes clan has served the LVHN community with distinction.

Dr. Michael Rhodes, MD, was chief of trauma and critical care surgery at Lehigh Valley Hospital and spent 25 years here. He left in 1995 to become chairman of surgery at the Medical Center of Delaware, moving his daughters closer to their ice-skating training in Delaware. He successfully guided the creation of LVH’s Level I trauma center and MedEvac program.

His brother Chuck Rhodes was a longtime weatherman and features reporter for ABC 27 in Harrisburg. Dr. Pat Rhodes jokes that when he’s in central Pennsylvania, he’s simply “Chuck’s brother.”

Dr. Rhodes says infectious disease prevention and treatment have come a long way with increasingly sophisticated tools. The move from the stand-alone hospitals of the past to regional centers such as LVHN have improved medical treatment, research and access, he says. LVHN’s recent merger with Jefferson Health is also a plus, he says. “It [merger] brings in a significant health plan that will help at-risk and vulnerable community members.”

Perhaps one of the hardest things with retirement, says Dr. Rhodes, is saying farewell to patients. He’s saying goodbye to them personally.

“Oh, my goodness, they take pictures of you and tear up and all that sort of thing,” he says. He forges strong bonds with his patients, some of whom he’s treated for more than 25 years.

Dr. Rhodes says he’s enjoyed both caring for patients and mentoring new infectious disease doctors. Infectious disease medicine, he says, is challenging, exciting and hard work.

“I never intended to be part of a group where everybody got old together. The rest of the group are young enough to be my children or grandchildren, and that’s as it should be,” he says.

“I never took much vacation. It was just my instinct to do what I do,” he says. “I can’t imagine the first day of retirement on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday in the middle of the day, getting up and going to do stuff.”