Bassam Kret, MD, has been named Physician of the Year at 227-bed Licking Memorial Hospital (LMH) in Newark, Ohio. Dr. Kret, who joined LMH in 2002, helped found the hospitalist program. Dr. Kret received the hospital’s MVP award in 2008 and practices with nine other hospitalists as part of the 24-hour HM service.

Louay Shawesh, MD, has been promoted to chief medical officer of Glendale, Calif.-based hospitalist services provider Apollo Medical Holdings (ApolloMed). Prior to his new position, he served as ApolloMed’s regional medical director. As CMO, Dr. Shawesh will be focused on improving efficiency and quality of healthcare delivery throughout ApolloMed’s network of 27 hospitalist programs.

Tony Rino is the new executive director for IPC: The Hospitalist Company’s New England region of operations. He is the first to serve in this new position, which oversees operations at acute-care and post-acute-care facilities throughout New England. Rino, a veteran hospital administrator, previously served as vice president of physician services for national hospital company Vanguard Health Systems. IPC is based in North Hollywood, Calif., and provides hospitalist services in 28 states.

Daniel Hilton, MD, has been named regional hospitalist medical director for ApolloMed’s new Orange County, Calif., division. Dr. Hilton will oversee all hospitalist operations at four Orange County hospitals; he already holds administrative positions at three of those facilities. A board-certified internal-medicine physician and veteran hospitalist, Dr. Hilton is especially focused on palliative care.

Mark Rudolph, MD, SFHM, is the new vice president of patient experience and physician development for Tacoma, Wash.-based Sound Physicians. He will focus on improving patient experience in all 70 of Sound’s hospitalist programs across the country. Prior to this role, Dr. Rudolph served as CMO of Sound’s Northwest region. Since joining the company in 2002, he has served as chief hospitalist at Highline Medical Center in Burien, Wash., and he helped pilot the development of SoundInstitute, a Web-based physician learning system.

Hospitalist Brian Harte, MD, SFHM, has been appointed president of Cleveland Clinic’s South Pointe Hospital in Warrensville Heights, Ohio. Dr. Harte previously served as chief operating officer at Hillcrest Hospital in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. He is a member of SHM’s board of directors and a deputy editor of the Journal of Hospital Medicine. At Cleveland Clinic, he also serves as medical director of Enterprise Business Intelligence.

Deepak Pahuja, MD, FACP, recently received the American College of Physicians’ (ACP) Illinois Downstate and Pennsylvania Leadership Development Achievement Award for completing ACP’s Leadership Seminars for Young Physicians. Dr Pahuja is a hospitalist and CEO of Aerolib Healthcare Solutions, a medical device innovation firm. He is a physician reviewer for Medical Audit and Review Solutions and Intercede Health for concurrent and retrospective patient reviews. He is pursuing his MBA with a focus in medical management from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass.

Business Moves

Apollo Medical Holdings (ApolloMed) has begun providing hospitalists services at 22 Los Angeles County hospitals in the L.A. Care Health Plan. L.A. Care serves more than 1 million people in Los Angeles County, making it the largest public healthcare plan in the country.

IPC: The Hospitalist Company, based in North Hollywood, Calif., has announced its acquisition of Elder Medical Services, P.C. Based in New York’s Syracuse and Buffalo areas, Elder provides post-acute care to patients in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Elder’s doctors and nurse practitioners focus on safe and efficient transitions between inpatient care and these facilities.

IPC also has announced the acquisition of Valley Hospital Doctors (VHD) in McAllen, Texas. All five of VHD’s co-owner physicians will stay on as practicing hospitalists.

Brentwood, Tenn.-based Cogent HMG now provides full-service hospitalist accommodations at the 65-bed Atlanta Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Texas. Atlanta Memorial serves the Cass and Atlanta counties’ area. Cogent provides services at more than 100 hospitals throughout the U.S.

Private equity group Sverica International has announced plans to invest in Akron, Ohio-based Inpatient Medical Services (IMS). Sverica officials say they were impressed with IMS’ exceptional growth in the Midwest over the past several years. IMS currently provides hospitalist services to hundreds of thousands of patients in the Northern Ohio region.

Sound Physicians, based in Tacoma, Wash., has announced plans to take over management of hospitalist services at 659-bed Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass. Baystate’s hospitalist program already employs 45 physicians.

Antelope Valley Hospital (AVH) in Lancaster, Calif., has launched its new hospitalist program for adult inpatients. The 420-bed facility already provides pediatric and OBGYN hospitalist services to their respective patients. Hospitalist and medical director Ferdinand Panoussi, DO, will lead a team of six full-time clinicians.

—Michael O’Neal

Hospitalists on the Move