Hospitalist named 2010 Physician of the Year at Moore Regional

PINEHURST – One of the nurses who nominated Suzanne Wilson, M.D., for 2010 Physician of the Year honors at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital had the following to say about the Hospitalist Service physician:

“When we see Dr. Wilson making rounds in our unit, we all know it is going to be a good day, even if the unit is in chaos. There are many great physicians in our hospital. I just feel Dr. Wilson stands out.”

Members of Moore Regional’s clinical staff choose the hospital’s Physician of the Year. Dr. Wilson, a hospitalist at Moore Regional since 2006, is the ninth physician, and first hospitalist, to receive the award since its inception in 2002.

“I am very honored,” she says. “To be honored by people you work with every day means more than most awards.”

Other nominations described Dr. Wilson as “a strong advocate for this organization” and praised the level of the patient care she provides. “She is always very caring at the bedside,” one nomination said. “She will come back and speak with the family and help them to understand in their terms.”

Linda Wallace, Moore Regional’s vice president for Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer, calls Dr. Wilson a “great asset to patient care and nursing.”

“She is always willing to teach staff and help staff grow, and she is very caring, not only to patients and families but to her team members,” Wallace says. “Every day she goes over and above to give of herself. It is a privilege to have her at Moore Regional.”

A native of Newburgh, Ind., Dr. Wilson was raised in a household where medicine was a part of everyday life. Her mother was a nurse, and her father was a medical photographer.

“Their conversations were always interesting to me,” Dr. Wilson says. “The sciences truly intrigued me, and I realized medicine intrigued me even more.”

Dr. Wilson attended Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green on a volleyball scholarship, finding the combination of education and athletics “a wonderful experience.” After graduating from Western Kentucky with a degree in biochemistry, she entered medical school at Indiana University. The wise counsel of a mentor put her on the track of a specialization in internal medicine and pediatrics.

“She said, ‘You will spend more time with your colleagues in medicine than you will with your spouse, so find a group that you just seem to click with,’” Dr. Wilson recalls.

After completing her internship and residency at the Indiana University Medical Center, Dr. Wilson spent several years as the co-director of one of the institution’s six clinics, supervising 20 to 25 medical residents, and then with a hospital in Evansville, Ind.

“That’s where I fell in love with hospital medicine,” she says.

During her tenure with Moore Regional, Dr. Wilson has established herself not only as a caring and committed physician but also as a physician leader. She is the CPOE (computerized physician order entry) officer, and she has leadership roles with the hospital’s Comprehensive Unit-Based Safety and Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection programs – both hospital quality and patient safety initiatives.

She also played a pivotal role in Moore Regional’s successful effort to be certified as a Stroke Center.

Dr. Wilson says she is fortunate to work with “a fantastic group of hospitalists,” physicians who practice only inside the hospital, who work under the leadership of medical director Daniel Barnes, D.O.; assistant medical director Jenifir Bruno, M.D.; and director Debbie DeLong.

“I’m also blessed to work with great nurses, with people who care and don’t often get the recognition they deserve,” she says. “I recognize their hard work and teamwork in providing care for their patients. I also recognize that the nurse has a lot of insight into better care for those patients.”

A self-described outdoor girl who “fell in love with North Carolina a long time ago,” Dr. Wilson enjoys running, biking, golfing and hiking with her husband and “best friend,” Bob Wiech.