At this Eagles-themed OB/GYN office, ‘spread your wings’ takes new meaning
Gynecologist Randolph Heinzel shows off his photography skills with his Eagles-themed medical exam room. Patients call it a personal touch.
When patients walk into the exam room at Main Line HealthCare OB/GYN in Broomall, Randolph Heinzel says reactions range from gasps to chuckles. You see, it’s Eagles-themed — both in terms of the team and the literal bird.
Amid the standard medical paraphernalia, like a scale, a sharps container, and computer monitors, visitors can find portraits of a 2018 victory parade crowd swarming Broad Street, a raptor taking flight, and, well, Jason Kelce, dressed in his Mummers best, his portrait placed behind the exam table and its stirrups.
The photos are all taken by Heinzel, a veteran obstetrician-gynecologist, who’s also a serious photographer — both in and outside of work, shooting a mix of lifestyle photography and newborn baby portraits over the years.
It’s only fair his work has a place to be displayed. His exam rooms double as his galleries.
“I study it like I would medicine and understand camera specs,” he said. “In the last 10 to 12 years, it’s something I’ve gotten really passionate about.”
Each room has its own theme. There’s an Outer Banks room, a cityscape room, and, perhaps the most popular, an Eagles-themed room — both the team and the bird. All the photos were taken by Heinzel.
“The whole point of the room was to add a little personality and take away some of the cold, clinical aspects of what a medical exam room is,” he said. “Patients really do say that it helps to make the exam a little better. That’s the point.”
Heinzel said he’s had the exam rooms displaying his photography across two offices for about a decade.
Recently, the Eagles room in particular had a surge in popularity after a newer patient posted photos of it on Threads.
“Nothing says ‘spread your wings’ quite like an Eagles-themed gynecologist’s office,” wrote Kate LaValley, who transferred to Main Line Health after her former doctor’s office closed.
LaValley’s post was liked more than 4,000 times, with viewers voicing the desire to switch offices and tagging Kylie Kelce with glee because of her husband’s surprise cameo (Kylie Kelce’s reps did not respond to a request for comment.)
Heinzel photographed Jason Kelce, dressed in a Mummers costume, in 2018 during the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory parade. Photos he took of Villanova’s 2016 NCAA national championship win are also displayed in the Eagles room.
“It was very comforting,” LaValley said, expressing contempt for standard exam rooms with old health diagrams. “As a lifelong Eagles fan, I was right at home,” she said noting it took her mind off that day’s procedure.
Heinzel said patients will go as far as requesting the room they want. Unsurprisingly, the Eagles room tends to be the most popular. But sometimes patients are still surprised.
Heinzel recalled seeing a patient of over 20 years for a routine exam in the last year. “We were in the Eagles room and she looked around, looked at me, and said ‘Dr. Heinzel, you know I’m a Cowboys fan, right?’”
He added, “It was so funny that I’ve known her for so long, she had never been in that room before, and once she was, it brought that response out.”
Heinzel says obstetrics and photography work in tandem for him. And word travels fast among moms.
Before cell phone cameras became so common, Heinzel said he recalled patients and their partners buying new cameras and bringing them into the delivery room to document their newborns. But often, the new parents were unfamiliar with the gear.
Heinzel got in the routine of, whenever possible, taking the camera from the parents and photographing the baby and their family. Eventually, he started bringing his own camera to keep things easier.
“Just looking at my wall, I probably have at least 30 to 40 photos of babies that I’ve delivered and was able to photograph for my patients,” he said. “They’re shots of these kids that are like, 15 seconds old, and it’s just amazing to see their literal first breath of life and to know I was able to capture that for some of my patients.”
Predictably, Heinzel’s photography skills became a coveted perk within the community of local expecting parents. He said several patients moved practices in hopes of Heinzel delivering and photographing their babies.
“Obviously, medical things are my priority so I couldn’t photograph all deliveries,” he said. “But there were a lot of routine deliveries where, once the baby comes out, I don’t have any immediate needs, and I would take photos of my patients.”
In July, after 23 years of delivering babies, Heinzel stopped doing obstetrics, now focusing on gynecology office appointments. That means his years of photography brand-new newborns are likely behind him.
Still, he credits his experiences for igniting both his career-related and creative passions.
“I’m happy that it resonates with my patients. My job as a doctor, other than giving good care, is I want to have good bedside manner,” he said. “It’s very important to me that I make my patients as comfortable as possible. So I’m happy the photos make their experience a little better.”
