The Wiregrass Chapter of the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) has received the 2019 Outstanding Chapter Award from the national society. In addition, the local chapter has received the Platinum Chapter Excellence Award for the second consecutive year.

The Outstanding Chapter award goes to the one chapter that exemplifies high performance, going above and beyond the basic chapter requirements. The local chapter was highlighted in The Hospitalist monthly magazine.

An article was also published in The Hospitalist about an exchange program between the Department of Hospital Medicine at Southeast Health and the University of New Mexico Medical Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“I believe this award not only represents dedication and commitment of the hospital medicine group at Southeast Health to promote best practices in hospital medicine, but it also speaks highly of Southeast Health’s innovative approaches to tackling Healthcare challenges in the region.” said Arash Velayati, MD, Southeast Health hospitalist. Dr. Velayati is the president of the Wiregrass Chapter of SHM.

“When we built our chapter in 2014, we named it Wiregrass to identify with our roots. We had the vision to become the best in the nation. We wanted to learn from the best and utilize the chapter to implement initiatives to improve healthcare delivery in our region; we have worked extremely hard and persevered to make that dream a reality. Our chapter leadership is in Southeast Health. With this win, we have placed the Wiregrass chapter, Southeast Health, and Dothan, Alabama on the map,” said Amith Skandhan, MD, Southeast Health hospitalist. Dr. Skandhan is the founder and immediate past president of the local chapter.

The Wiregrass Chapter of SHM cover more than 50 counties in south Alabama and the Panhandle of Florida.