Tammy Bugger, hospitalist practice administrator at Alton Memorial Hospital (AMH) in Alton, Ill., was awarded Manager of the Year for Illinois by BJC Medical Group. Bugger is being honored for helping to improve overall patient satisfaction scores for the AMH hospitalist group by ensuring that each patient understands the role of the hospitalist in his or her inpatient care at the hospital.

Rakhi Dimino, MD, has been promoted to one of Greenville, S.C.-based Ob Hospitalist Group’s medical directors of operations as part of its OBHG’s Clinical Leadership Team. Dr. Dimino is currently an OB hospitalist at Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital in Houston, Texas.

Roger Lee, MD, has been appointed to the role of chief of staff at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica. Dr. Lee is the current co-director of the hospitalist program at UCLA and has served as the chair of UCLA Medical Center’s Medicine Department since 2009. Dr. Lee provides inpatient care at the UCLA Santa Monica campus and at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica.

Jordan Messler, MD, is the new glycemic mentor at the Diabetes Center for Excellence at Heywood Healthcare in North-Central Massachusetts, as part of its partnership with SHM’s Glycemic Control Mentored Implementation Program. Dr. Messler is the current chair of SHM’s Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety Committee. He is based in Clearwater, Fla., where he serves as the medical director of Morton Plant Hospital’s hospitalist program.

Shiraz Nisar, MD, was appointed chairperson of the department of medicine at University Hospitals (UH) Ahuja Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Nisar is the current clinical site director for Community Hospitalists, a division of the Martin Healthcare Group (MHG) based in Cleveland, at UH Ahuja.

Stephen P. O’Mahony, MD, FACP, has been appointed chief medical information officer for Barnabas Health system based in West Orange, N.J. Most recently, Dr. O’Mahony served as vice president of information technology at Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Conn. He is credited with founding one of Connecticut’s first ever hospitalist programs at Norwalk Hospital in 1999.

O’Neil J. Pyke, MD, SFHM, is the new national director of hospital medicine for Keystone Healthcare Management, Inc., based in Memphis, Tenn. Prior to his new role, Dr. Pyke had worked as a hospitalist consultant for Keystone since 2006. Dr. Pyke previously served on SHM’s Ethics and Non-Physician Provider Committees and was a SHM Leadership Academy faculty facilitator.

Jeff Sperring, MD, has been named the new CEO of Seattle Children’s Hospital in Seattle, Wash. Most recently, Dr. Sperring was the CEO of Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis. Before joining the C-suite, Dr. Sperring served as director of pediatric hospital medicine, chief of staff, and associate chief of staff at Riley Hospital.

Robin Thomas, DO, is the new chairperson of the department of medicine at UH Regional Hospitals, Richmond Campus. Dr. Thomas is a hospitalist for Community Hospitalists, a division of Martin Healthcare Group (MHG) based in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Thomas is the current residency director for UH Regional Hospitals.

Jane van Dis, MD, FACOG, was recently promoted to one of the positions of medical directors of operations for Ob Hospitalist Group based in Greenville, S.C. Dr. van Dis is an OB hospitalist at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, Calif. Before launching her clinical career six years ago, Dr. van Dis taught at the University of Minnesota Department of OB/GYN as an assistant professor and served as director of the Medical Student OB/GYN Clerkship at the University of Minnesota.

Business Moves

Bates County Memorial Hospital (BCMH) in Butler, Mo., has partnered with Saint Luke’s Health System and Saint Luke’s Physician Specialists to offer hospital medicine services at the facility. The new hospitalist program will staff four hospitalists seven days a week in the hospital from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and via telemedicine at night. Saint Luke’s Health System is a regional hospital system that consists of 10 acute care facilities and dozens of outpatient, specialty, and laboratory practices throughout the greater Kansas City area.

Blue Ridge Regional Hospital (BRRH) in Spruce Pine, N.C., recently launched its first hospitalist program. BRRH is a 46-bed, nonprofit, acute care facility serving lower Avery, upper McDowell, Mitchell, and Yancey counties in North Carolina.

IPC Healthcare, Inc. (formerly IPC The Hospitalist Company), based in North Hollywood, Calif., recently acquired Capital Internal Medicine, LLC, based in Silver Spring, Md.; Geriatrics Associates, PC, in Albuquerque, N.M., and GTA Health Solutions in Morristown, Tenn. Capital Internal Medicine is a physician staffing company serving the greater Washington, D.C., metro area. Geriatrics Associates is a long-term and hospice care provider serving greater Albuquerque. GTA Health Solutions is a post-acute behavioral health practice. IPC provides hospitalist and post-acute staffing services in 27 states across the country.

Moses Taylor Hospital, a 217-bed acute care center in Scranton, Penn., recently opened a brand new pediatric wing that will be staffed by a team of pediatric hospitalists from Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital. The new Pediatric Center of Excellence will provide 18 beds for pediatric care 24 hours a day. Moses Taylor Hospital is part of Commonwealth Health, a regional healthcare network in Northeastern Pennsylvania consisting of six hospitals and dozens of post-acute and laboratory centers throughout the region.

The Ob Hospitalist Group (OBHG), based in Greenville, S.C., has announced a partnership with Huntington Hospital in San Gabriel Valley, Calif., to provide OB/GYN hospitalist services to inpatients around the clock. Huntington Hospital is a 625-bed nonprofit institution with a level II trauma center. OBHG has been providing inpatient OB/GYN services since 2006.

Sound Physicians, based in Tacoma, Wash., received a 2015 Innovation in Healthcare Delivery Silver Award from Seattle Business magazine. The award recognizes “high-quality, cost-effective health care through innovative new business models and clinical processes.” Sound has been providing hospitalist physician services since 2001.

Sound Physicians is now providing hospitalist services to Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican hospital in Henderson, Nev. St. Rose Dominican is a nonprofit, religiously sponsored hospital part of the Dignity Health network, which operates hospitals, clinics, and care centers in 21 states across the country. Sound Physicians is one of the largest hospitalist providers in the United States, serving hospitals in 35 states across the United States.

Southland MD, a regional hospitalist service provider based in Thomasville, Ga., is now providing hospital medicine at Memorial Hospital and Manor in Bainbridge, Ga. Memorial Hospital and Manor is an 80-bed acute care hospital with an adjacent 107-bed nursing home next door. Southland MD is a regional hospitalist, emergency medicine, and outpatient care provider serving patients throughout South Georgia and North Florida.

TeamHealth, a hospitalist and emergency medicine staffing company based in Knoxville, Tenn., was recently named one of the “150 Great Places to Work in Healthcare” by Becker’s Hospital Review. TeamHealth provides hospitalist, emergency medicine, pediatric, anesthesia, and urgent care through its affiliates in 47 U.S. states across the country.

–Michael O’Neal

Last Month's Poll

Which coding mistake do you most commonly make?

72%: Undervaluing the patient’s complexity

16%:Documenting your consideration of the appropriate data

8%: Listing the problem without a plan

4%: Failing to clearly document the plan

This Month's Poll

How do you feel about acute-care surgical hospitalists?

We have them, I feel positively

We have them, I feel negatively

We don't have them, are interested in the idea

We don't have them, are not interested in the idea

Undecided

Movers and Shakers in Hospital Medicine, June 2015

This Month's Poll