ENT physician Dr. Elliott Bilofsky was honored with the Pennsylvania Medical Society’s Everyday Hero Award, primarily for his work during the pandemic, when he performed at least 70 tracheostomies on critically ill COVID-19 patients. Courtesy photo

When describing his colleague, Dr. Mehrdad Ghaffari said Dr. Elliott Bilofsky is one of those guys who just finds a way to set himself apart from the rest.

“Being a great doctor, it means that you’re only a doctor 24/7,” Ghaffari said. “You don’t have vacation. Elliott makes all of us better doctors by the way he answers his phone and the way he thinks 24/7.”

That was one of the many reasons Bilofsky, 61, was recognized last month with the Pennsylvania Medical Society’s Everyday Hero Award.

He was recommended for the award by a member of his department, Dr. Sharon Tomaski, an ear, nose and throat surgeon.

“She primarily really highlighted the hard work he did during COVID, because of being the primary ENT in the area, and really being able to find a way to treat absolutely everyone that needed treated, and never took a step back,” said Janet Thompson, membership liaison for the Pennsylvania Medical Society.

On the day he was presented with the Everyday Hero award, Bilofsky said there were others in the room who were deserving of the award as well.

“I thought I was non-deserving,” he said. “I think there are 100 people in that room (on July 28) who deserve this award more than me. I just come up and do what I love to do and take care of people.”

Bilofsky has performed at least 70 tracheostomies on critically ill COVID-19 patients during the pandemic.

Tomaski admires Bilofsky’s willingness to go above and beyond for his patients, along with his dedication to his family and the community.

“He is a tireless advocate for his patients and always available for consultations from primary care physicians and all other specialties, both inpatient and outpatient,” she said.

“He is not only a physician with a calling, but he is also a dedicated and loving husband to his fabulous wife, Kara, and his three fantastic children, in addition to being a pillar of the community and his synagogue.”

When looking for Everyday Heroes, the Pennsylvania Medical Society seeks to highlight individuals who go above and beyond for their patients.

Tomaski, who works for Bilofsky, noted that he has performed his duties even while risking his own health.

Dr. Katherine Erlichman, ophthalmologist at UPMC Bedford, recruited him to work in Bedford County

26 years ago, after they went to medical school together, because she felt the area could use someone of his skill set.

“They know if they need your services, via the average ENT issue or trauma, or any emergency, that you, Elliott Bilofsky, will stand in the trenches until the patient is stable and safe,” Erlichman said in her remarks at the presentation. “It is my honor to work with you to provide excellent health services to the people of Bedford County.”

Bilofsky was hired in 1995 to join then Bedford Memorial Hospital and today serves as the chairman of the PPEC Committee, director of medical education and is a leadership council member.

After graduating his residency, Bilofsky went to work in private practice for two years in the 1990s in Bucks County, and he noted it was a difficult time for health care, leading him to practice elsewhere.

“HMOs were coming, doctors were getting just pummeled by reduced rates, and it was toxic,” he said. “I didn’t want to be in it. I got a lot of great offers to stay in the city, but I wanted to get out of the environment.”

He was also driven by the fact that this area didn’t have an ENT.

“I saw an opportunity that I didn’t see anywhere else, that the services I could provide weren’t being offered to a town of 40,000 people,” he said. “I didn’t realize it was going to grow to Huntingdon and Fulton County before I wound up joining Altoona. It was a phenomenal opportunity.”

Bilofsky was hired to the full-time medical staff at UPMC Altoona in June 2014 and is the current Chief ENT, is a member of the medical staff executive committee and operating room committee.

Before joining UPMC Altoona, Bilofsky worked in private practice from 1995-2014 in Bedford, Huntingdon and Fulton counties.

Jan Fisher, president and CEO for UPMC Altoona and UPMC Bedford, saluted Bilofsky for his passion for rural medicine.

“It’s his nature; it’s his calling,” she said. “He feels responsibility to this community. He’s the physician we want that lives here, that goes to synagogue here, knows thousands of people, so they’re his patients.”

Fisher said Bilofsky “sets the bar very highly for all of us in the medical profession to remember why we do this, and that’s to take care of patients.”

Bilofsky noted it’s the people he works with and those he serves who keep him coming back daily.

“Every day I get up, I’m excited to come to work,” he said. “I love what I do. I’m surrounded by people who love what I do and help me do what I do so well. I looked at it as this is just another day where you have to contribute, and if you don’t contribute, people are going to die.”

One of the biggest reasons he has stayed here, he said, is the strong Jewish community.

“What sold me was my Judaism,” Bilofsky said. “I came to Altoona in 1995, and I met guys who were very excited to be part of a synagogue, where the members knew each other and loved each other, and helped grow their children in a vibrant Jewish community.”

When asked why he would recommend becoming an ENT specialist to someone considering what to do with their life, he feels the possibilities are endless.

“What ENT offers is the ability to take care of people from age zero to age infinity,” he said. “You’re not trapped with an age group. It is also to take care of males and females. It allows you to become very much part of their lives,” he said.

“You’re not just doing something surgically and never going to see them again. Those people become part of your practice for the rest of your life.”

The Bilofsky file

Name: Dr. Elliott Bilofsky

Age: 61

Residence: Hollidaysburg

Hometown: Philadelphia

Occupation: Chief ENT at UPMC Altoona and Bedford

Education: Philadelphia of Osteopathic Medicine (Education in 1987 and Residency), St. Joseph’s Hospital (Residency), Northeast Hospital of Philadelphia (Residency).

Board Certification: AOIA, in Otolaryn and Facial Plastic Surgery, 1995

Family: Wife, Kara; and children, Dina (husband Alex), Ian and Samantha.