The Society of Hospital Medicine Announces New Board Officer Appointments, Welcomes Two New Members to Board of Directors

Rachel Thompson, MD, MPH, SFHM Assumes Presidency as Kierstin Cates Kennedy, MD, MSHA, SFHM and D. Ruby Sahoo, DO, MBA, SFHM Join for Three-Year Terms

The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) recently announced that Rachel Thompson, MD, MPH, SFHM has assumed the presidency of SHM’s Board of Directors, succeeding Jerome C. Siy, MD, MHA, SFHM. In addition, Kris Rehm, MD, SFHM was voted President-Elect, Flora Kisuule, MD, MPH, SFHM was elected Treasurer, and Robert P. Zipper, MD, MMM, SFHM was voted Secretary. Kierstin Cates Kennedy, MD, MSHA, SFHM and D. Ruby Sahoo, DO, MBA, SFHM also joined the Board for three-year terms.

“I am honored to serve as President of SHM’s Board of Directors for the upcoming year and work together with such a talented, forward-thinking group of individuals,” notes Rachel E. Thompson, MD, SFHM. “With the additions of Drs. Kennedy and Sahoo, and in collaboration with the entire Board, I am confident that we have the leadership to provide our members with even more of the networking, education, and resources they expect from SHM to care for their patients and advance their careers.”

Dr. Thompson currently serves as Chief Medical Officer at Snoqualmie Valley Health District in Snoqualmie, Washington. Since joining SHM in 2006, she has volunteered with the Pacific Northwest Chapter and Perioperative Special Interest Group. She has been actively involved in SHM Chapter development nationally and locally. Dr. Thompson joined the Board of Directors in 2017 and served as Treasurer prior to becoming President-Elect. She also has been the Board Liaison for the Hospital Medicine Disaster Preparedness and Management Special Interest Group.

New Board member Kierstin Cates Kennedy, MD, MSHA, SFHM is a med-peds trained academic hospitalist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Medicine, where she holds the rank of Clinical Associate Professor and also is currently serving as Interim Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Kennedy is fellowship trained in quality improvement in healthcare via the VA Quality Scholars Program and has expertise in inpatient coding and documentation, Case Mix Index and Observed to Expected Mortality improvement strategies, efficiency in hospital throughput, and ultrasound-guided bedside procedures. She has been a member of SHM since 2015 and has served as a course facilitator, course faculty, and now course director at SHM Leadership Academy.

D. Ruby Sahoo, DO, MBA, SFHM has also joined the Board for a three-year term. She is the Hospital Medicine Performance Director at TeamHealth in Austin, TX, where she is a practicing hospitalist. She was TeamHealth’s Medical Director of the Year for Hospital Medicine in 2018 and was elected as Chief of Staff of Grand Strand Medical Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in 2019. Dr. Sahoo is a hospital medicine leader who joined SHM in 2015 and has been engaged in multiple aspects of the organization, including as a presenter for “A Hospital Medicine Playbook for COVID-19,” a webinar that helped hospitalists navigate COVID-19’s impact during the early days of the pandemic. In addition, she has served as a Chapter Leader and participated in the Multi-Site Leaders Special Interest Group.

“We are at a pivotal moment in healthcare and in hospital medicine, and the new Board of Directors is poised to guide SHM through the upcoming year,” says Eric E. Howell, MD, MHM, Chief Executive Officer of SHM. “The depth and breadth of expertise they bring to SHM – both in medical practice and in life experiences – make them the ideal stewards of SHM to lead us into the future.”