John Carlile, MD, is the new medical director of pediatric hospitalist and intensivist services at Summerville (S.C.) Medical Center. Most recently, Dr. Carlile worked as a pediatric critical care specialist at Cox Medical Center in Springfield, Mo.
Bryce Gartland, MD, FHM, has been named CEO of Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Dr. Gartland currently serves as the hospital’s chief operating officer and interim director of the TEC Section of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Gartland has practiced hospital medicine at Emory since 2005 and has served in several leadership roles since then.
Melissa Mattison, MD, SFHM, has been appointed chief of hospital medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston. Dr. Mattison formerly served as the associate chief in the section of hospital medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. In addition to her new role, she will still teach medicine as an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
Elaine McElveen, RN, has been named director of the hospitalist program at McLeod Medical Center Dillon in Dillon, S.C. In her new role, McElveen also will oversee the case management department. She has been a practicing nurse for the McLeod Health system for 28 years.
Stephen Rualo, MD, received the Standards of Excellence Award from Beebe Healthcare and Beebe Medical Foundation located in Lewes, Del. Dr. Rualo has served as a hospitalist at Beebe Healthcare for five years and has led the implementation of the hospital’s electronic medical record as the Cerner Medical Staff Champion. The award recognizes physicians with high patient satisfaction scores, positive patient outcomes, and overall commitment to improving patient care.
Christine Wentt, PA, an adult hospitalist physician assistant, has been inducted into the VIP Woman of the Year Circle for 2015-2016 by the National Association of Professional Women (NAPW). Wentt works for Physicians Inpatient Care Specialists (MDICS), a private hospitalist group in Glen Burnie, Md. Wentt also serves as an adjunct professor in Drexel University’s physician assistant program.
Robert Zurcher, MD, has been appointed chief medical officer for emergency medicine at HNI Healthcare (formerly Hospitalists Now, Inc.), based in Austin, Texas. Dr. Zurcher comes to HNI Healthcare from IPC Healthcare, where he served as the administrative director for their Northwest Region. Dr. Zurcher has 27 years of practice experience and has founded and managed physician services companies in both hospital medicine and emergency medicine.
Business Moves
North Hollywood, Calif.-based IPC Healthcare recently announced its acquisition of Hospital Medicine Consultants, LLC, in Elgin, Ill., a locally owned practice serving several hospitals in the Chicago suburbs. IPC staffs hospitalist providers in more than 400 hospitals across the country.
The Schumacher Group, a private hospitalist and emergency medicine provider, announced the implementation of a new telehospitalist program at Abrom Kaplan Memorial and Acadia General Hospitals, both in Lafayette, La. The program will allow physicians to provide overnight care to the two facilities from a remote location. The Schumacher Group was founded in 1994 and currently serves more than four million patients per year.
Surgical Affiliates Management Group (SAMG), a private surgical hospitalist company based in Sacramento, Calif., recently contracted with Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport, Calif. SAMG will provide 24-hour surgicalist services to the 25-bed critical access facility in Northern California.
Mike O’Neal is a freelance writer in New York City.
In Memoriam
Obafemi Abioye Ayantuga, BSc, DPhil, MBBChir, MPH, SFHM, a senior fellow and active member of SHM, passed away on July 23. Dr. Ayantuga was the medical director of hospitalist services for the Fairview Medical Group, based in Minneapolis. He practiced at Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina, Minn.
Dr. Ayantuga completed his PhD thesis at Oxford University in less than three years, during which time he received the Bishop Frazer Prize for excellence in research in organic chemistry. Following his tenure at Oxford, Dr. Ayantuga obtained his medical degree from Cambridge University in 1994.
As his memorial site notes, “he continued until his death, to demonstrate dedication to quality and process involvement, illustrating commitment to active engagement in lifelong learning.”