Samaritan Announces Apogee Hospitalist Group Recipient of Program of the Year Award

Published on: October 10, 2023

Watertown, NY – Samaritan Medical Center is proud to announce that its contracted hospitalist group, Apogee Physicians, led by Dr. Asim Kichloo, program director, recently won the “Program of the Year” award.

Apogee is the largest Hospitalist group in the nation. They proudly hold a yearly Program Director Summit where they gather from around the country to celebrate the best of the best in Hospital Medicine. This year, the hospitalist program at Samaritan Medical Center was selected as the award recipient.

According to Dr. Kichloo, “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision, the ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results. This is the Watertown Apogee/Samaritan hospitalist team for you, always achieving uncommon results.” He went on to say, “The team is orchestrated by good balance of experience, commitment, passion, and team spirit. Each one is an invaluable member of the team, which I have had the pleasure to serve and learn from over the last five years.”

To achieve this award, the local team, in collaboration with hospital leadership, must be aligned in multiple aspects of the delivery of patient care. All programs are evaluated on their performance in key quality metrics like re-admissions, length of stay, patient health metrics, team staffing, recruiting, retention, and collaboration with hospital drivers of quality.

The “Program of the Year” has the highest level of performance while maintaining the most important Apogee staple, “What is best for the Patient is best for the Practice.” “We could not achieve this level of service without a committed hospital administration, specialist support, and an amazing team of nursing and other floor staff. We are proud of the entire team and very proud to be part of the Apogee Samaritan Medical Center partnership,” said Jaime Upegui, MD, Apogee division president.

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Background:

The hospitalist program at Samaritan began in 2003 with only four physicians.  The program has grown to over a dozen. Apogee Physicians began management of the program in 2019 because we needed to make sure the team was fully staffed to care for our inpatients.

A hospitalist is a physician who specializes in internal medicine and in the evaluation and treatment of patients who require hospital care. The goal of the hospitalist program is to deliver exceptional, efficient and compassionate medical care to Samaritan patients, communicate clearly with these patients and the family members who care for them, and to ensure a smooth transition from the hospital back into their daily lives, always maintaining close contact with the patient’s primary care provider.