SARASOTA, Fla. – (Oct. 18, 2023) – Sarasota Memorial Hospital honored two physicians for outstanding service this week and announced its 2023-2024 chiefs of staff for the SMH-Sarasota and SMH-Venice campuses.
Rickey Wiseman, MD, was awarded Sarasota Memorial’s 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award and Mathew Waldron, MD, was named 2023 Physician of the Year. After input from the medical staff, a committee of physician leaders recognized Drs. Wiseman and Waldron at the SMH-Sarasota annual medical staff meeting on Oct. 17.
SMH Lifetime Achievement Award
Rickey Wiseman, MD, received the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award for decades of dedicated service to Sarasota Memorial and the community. A longtime internal medicine specialist in the community, Dr. Wiseman has spent the past 45 years combining his passion for medicine, compassion for people and strong faith while caring for patients in our community. After graduating with his medical degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine in 1978 and completing his residency at the University of Virginia, Dr. Wiseman established a private practice in Sarasota in 1981 and later joined Intercoastal Medical Group until his retirement in 2020.
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 awarded 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 unwavering dedication to patients and his ability to lead, unify and inspire 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 (FPG). Dr. Waldron’s peers praised him for his tireless efforts the past year to coordinate a successful transition during a challenging, nationwide shortage of healthcare professionals.
Before transitioning to the FPG practice, Dr. Waldron joined Sarasota Anesthesiologists in May 2022, after serving seven years as a cardiac anesthesiologist at St. Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, Mid America Heart Institute and assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He earned his medical degree at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 2010 and completed his anesthesiology residency at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida in 2014 and a fellowship in cardiothoracic anesthesiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago in 2015.
Sarasota Memorial Health Care System Chief Medical Officer James Fiorica, MD, said both physicians are role models committed to compassionate, high quality care.
“Dr. Wiseman and Dr. Waldron are excellent clinicians who have demonstrated extraordinary care for their patients and dedication to enhancing care in our community,” Dr. Fiorica said. “Both exemplify the qualities every doctor should strive for.”
In related news, the Medical Staffs of SMH-Sarasota and SMH-Venice selected their Chiefs of Staff for 2023-2024:
Sarah Temple, MD, was named Chief of Staff, serving as the top representative of SMH-Sarasota campus’ 1,800-plus medical staff members and advanced practice providers; she succeeds Jonathan Hoffberger, DO, whose one-year term as chief ends this month.
Scott Perrin, MD, was named Chief of Staff for the SMH-Venice campus, serving as the top representative for that hospital’s 1,200-plus medical staff members and advanced practice providers; he succeeds Christopher Jefferson, MD, who has served as chief since the hospital opened in 2021.
About Sarasota Memorial Health Care System
Founded in 1925, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System is a regional medical center offering Southwest Florida’s greatest breadth and depth of care, with nearly 2,0000 physicians and advanced practice providers and more than a million patient visits a year across its network of care. Sarasota County’s largest employer, the health system includes two full-service hospitals in Sarasota and Venice, a freestanding ER in North Port, and a comprehensive network of outpatient centers, urgent care clinics and physician practices that stretch from Manatee County to North Port. As the region's only public health system and not-for-profit health care provider, SMH serves as a critical safety net for the uninsured in Sarasota County. Visit smh.com for information.