Medical Staff Honors Physicians, Installs Leaders

Sarasota Memorial recently honored two physicians for outstanding service and installed its 2024 chiefs of staff for the SMH-Sarasota and SMH-Venice campuses.

SMH Lifetime Achievement Award

Rickey Wiseman, MD, received the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from the medical staff for his decades of dedicated service to Sarasota Memorial and the community.

His peers praise him as a mentor and role model for compassionate, high-quality care. Dr. Wiseman has volunteered his time and services caring for low-income and uninsured patients at Sarasota Memorial’s Community Specialty Clinic since its inception 30 years ago, while also caring for patients in a busy private practice for decades. Among other contributions, he continues to serve as medical director and a volunteer physician in his retirement at the clinic, which provides free care, consults and specialty services to thousands of vulnerable Sarasota County residents each year.

SMH Physician of the Year

Matthew Waldron, MD, a cardiac anesthesiologist, was named Sarasota Memorial’s 2023 Physician of the Year.

Dr. Waldron joined Sarasota Memorial’s medical staff in 2022, but served a vital role his first year as the health system opened its own anesthesiology practice to meet the growing region’s increasing medical needs. Although a relative newcomer to Sarasota, Dr. Waldron’s advocacy and dedication to patients and his ability to lead and unify his peers helped Sarasota Memorial create a new anesthesia practice that combined longtime anesthesiology professionals in the community with new ones recruited by SMH, creating the largest medical division within SMH’s First Physicians Group. Dr. Waldron’s peers praised him for his tireless efforts this past year to coordinate a successful transition during a challenging, nationwide shortage of health care professionals.

“Dr. Wiseman and Dr. Waldron are excellent clinicians who have demonstrated extraordinary care for their patients and dedication to enhancing care in our community,” said Sarasota Memorial Health Care System Chief Medical Officer James Fiorica, MD. “Both exemplify the qualities every doctor should strive for.”

New Chiefs of Staff for Sarasota and Venice Campuses:
Emergency Medicine Physician Sarah Temple, MD, was installed as chief of staff for the SMH-Sarasota Campus, serving as the top representative of 1,800-plus medical staff members and advanced practice providers. She succeeds Jonathan Hoffberger, DO, whose one-year term as chief of staff for SMH-Sarasota recently ended.

Interventional Radiologist Scott Perrin, MD, was named chief of staff for SMH-Venice, serving as the top representative for the 1,200-plus medical staff members and advanced practice providers at our newest hospital. He succeeds Christopher Jefferson, MD, who has served as chief since the Venice campus opened in 2021.