At 76, Richard Butcher could be playing golf somewhere. Instead, Butcher maintains a private clinic in southeastern San Diego where he sees up to 30 patients per day.
Butcher, who was given the "Practitioner of the Year" award by the National Medical Association this month, is the president of Care View Medical Group, which he co-founded 20 years ago.
The clinic serves primarily black, Latino and Asian patients who live in the neighborhood. The patients are the reasons he started the clinic. He's also seeing more patients come in because of the Affordable Care Act, Butcher said.
"I wish they would take the politics out of medical care and allow it to go, but there is still a lot of challenges going on," Butcher said.
Butcher also co-led the effort to create the Multicultural Health Foundation, a community-based group devoted to addressing health disparities in San Diego. He said he hopes to address health disparities through the foundation.
"We're planning on having a big study dealing with this," Butcher said. "We're basing it here in the neighborhood."
Butcher's efforts in the community is the reason he was given the prestigious award.
"We believe that when the history of this dynamic period of struggle is written, your name will be deeply etched in its fabric as having inspired and challenged physicians and medical professionals nationwide to address criticial issues of health care and medicine," said Lawrence Sanders Jr., president of the National Medical Association, when he announced Butcher as the recipient of the award.
Butcher has also volunteered at Granite Hills High School and co-founded with his wife the nonprofit Water for Children Africa.