Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital reviews medical applicants, onboarding pediatric hospitalist program

ALBANY — While making note of a pediatric hospitalist program about to come on board at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, consideration was also given to some new medical staff applicants looking to join the hospital as well as a new credentialing form at a recent committee meeting at the hospital.

The Phoebe Professional Affairs Committee held its August meeting on Monday. Prior to the closed session, mention was made of a pediatric hospitalist program that is about to come on board next week that officials say should result in more pediatric cases staying in Albany.

“Even though we have had two programs, we didn’t have 24-hour coverage,” said Laura Shearer, senior vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at Phoebe. “We will have two programs combining under AAPHC (Albany Area Primary Health Care).”

Dr. Frank Middleton, the outgoing interim chief medical officer at the hospital, said that such coverage would allow for physicians to be on call to Phoebe’s emergency department for pediatric cases, and for sedation as it is required for certain scans or procedures.

“There are significant benefits from that,” he said. “It will be a much improved service.”

Following the closed session, Middleton also presented a credentials report to the committee. Presented before the Credentials/Bylaws Committee on July 28 and the Medical Executive Committee on Aug. 5, it listed several medical staff applicants in various specialties including nephrology, internal medicine, teleradiology, critical care, emergency medicine, family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology and pediatric cardiology. They are Drs. Dina Corbin, Chika Ezigbo, Sandra Parada-Orrego, Dhaval Patel, Homer Richardson, Jinne Richards, Babak Saadatmand, Emily Sumner, Justin Vining, Lawrence Wilson and Kathryn Zamora.

The committee recommended the report for approval by the full board. It also approved a credentialing form for applicants looking to come into Phoebe’s new critical care department, which is also expected to go before the full board at its next meeting.

The medical staff at Phoebe primarily takes on the role of looking into a physician applicants’ qualifications, in turn making a recommendation to the Professional Affairs Committee before the hospital’s full board makes a final decision.