SMH Honors Physicians, Installs New Medical Staff Leaders

SARASOTA, Fla. (Oct. 31, 2023) - Sarasota Memorial Hospital announced its 2025 chiefs of staff for the SMH-Sarasota and SMH-Venice campuses today and honored two physicians for their outstanding service to SMH and the Suncoast community.

Reuben Holland, MD, medical director of Sarasota Memorial emergency and urgent care services, received Sarasota Memorial's 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award, while SMH trauma surgeon Christian Schuetz, MD, was named 2024 Physician of the Year. After input from the medical staff, a committee of physician leaders recognized Dr. Holland and Dr. Schuetz at the annual medical staff meeting in October.

SMH Lifetime Achievement Award
Reuben Holland, MD, received the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award after decades of dedicated service to Sarasota Memorial and the community. Dr. Holland joined the SMH medical staff in 1990, and has served in a number of leadership roles, most notably as president of Sarasota Emergency Associates and longtime medical director of SMH's emergency and urgent care centers. He serves on the core faculty of the SMH/Florida State University graduate medical education program, training newly graduated physicians completing their emergency medicine residencies at SMH. He also served as chief of staff 2005-2006, was awarded SMH Physician of the Year in 2018 and has chaired the medical staff's credentialing committee since 2012.

Along with all of these roles, Dr. Holland also has provided exceptional emergency medical care to nearly 125,000 patients in SMH's emergency care centers, while helping SMH open its Level II trauma center and oversee a regional network of urgent care centers. In nominating him for SMH's highest physician honor, peers praised him for his collaborative leadership style and called him a role model and mentor for compassionate, high-quality care.

SMH Physician of the Year
Christian Schuetz, MD, was named Sarasota Memorial's 2024 Physician of the Year. A skilled trauma surgeon, Dr. Schuetz has served a vital role as medical director the past two years, helping the team expand trauma and acute care surgery services to meet the region's increasing medical needs. Calling him a "hometown kid" committed to caring for his community, peers nominating him for the award said Dr. Schuetz' advocacy, unwavering dedication to patients and ability to lead has strengthened the continuum of care that is helping restore patients' quality of life.

Dr. Schuetz joined SMH in 2015 and assumed the role of medical director of trauma and acute care surgery services in July 2023. Over the years, he has been an integral part of the growth of the trauma program, which responds to an average 2,700 trauma alerts and treats more than 5,000 injured patients per year, including more than 1,500 requiring emergency surgery and interventions.

Sarasota Memorial Health Care System Chief Medical Officer James Fiorica, MD, said both physicians have played a vital role in delivering life-saving care in Sarasota County, noting that SMH's patient outcomes rank among the top 10% of trauma programs nationwide.

"Dr. Holland and Dr. Schuetz are skilled clinicians and extraordinary leaders who have saved the lives of countless patients and established a framework for emergency and trauma care that is second to none," Dr. Fiorica said. "We are pleased to recognize them with this year's physician leadership awards."

Also this month, the Medical Staffs of SMH-Sarasota and SMH-Venice selected their Chiefs of Staff for 2025:

Kenneth Hurwitz, MD, was named Chief of Staff, serving as the top representative of SMH-Sarasota campus' 2,000-plus medical staff members and advanced practice providers; he succeeds Sarah Temple, MD, whose one-year term as chief ends this month.

Scott Perrin, MD, will begin the second of his two-year term as Chief of Staff for the SMH-Venice campus, serving as the top representative for that hospital's 1,200-plus medical staff members and advanced practice providers next month.

Founded in 1925, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System is a regional medical center offering Southwest Florida's greatest breadth and depth of care, with more than 2,000 physicians and advanced practice providers and nearly 2 million patient visits a year across its network of care. Sarasota County's largest employer, the health system includes two full-service hospitals in Sarasota and Venice, a freestanding ER in North Port, and a comprehensive network of outpatient centers, urgent care clinics and physician practices that stretch from Manatee County to North Port. As the region's only public health system and not-for-profit health care provider, SMH serves as a critical safety net for the uninsured in Sarasota County. Visit smh.com for information.

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