Christopher E. Bucciarelli, MD became chief medical officer (CMO) of St. Joseph’s Hospital-South on August 2.
As CMO, Dr. Bucciarelli assists St. Joseph’s Hospital-South’s doctors in providing safe, effective medical care to the public. His responsibilities include training new physicians on the hospital’s policies and keeping staff current on health regulations. He’ll also provide clinical oversight to physicians, ensure regulatory compliance and evaluate the quality of services. Dr. Bucciarelli will also represent the hospital at BayCare and community meetings.
Dr. Bucciarelli has served as assistant chief medical officer at BayCare’s Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater since March 2020.
He is a board-certified emergency medicine physician and is affiliated with Bay Area Emergency Physicians in Clearwater. He has practiced as an emergency medicine doctor at both Morton Plant Hospital and BayCare’s Bardmoor Emergency Center in Largo since 2016.
Dr. Bucciarelli will continue to practice as an emergency medicine physician while he is St. Joseph’s Hospital-South’s CMO.
He served on numerous BayCare and Morton Plant work groups, project groups and committees with topics that include stroke, emergency department and hospital services, emergency department COVID-19 testing, hospital and health care policy, quality review and physician credentialing. He held leadership positions in many of these groups and committees.
Dr. Bucciarelli said he is prepared for medical leadership at St. Joseph’s Hospital-South in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“St. Joseph’s South has that hometown feel,” he said of the 223-bed hospital with more than 1,200 team members. “Despite what’s going on right now, everyone still has a smile. You can see their smiles through the masks. This is a very tight-knit group. Walking with executive leadership and doing introductions, everybody literally knows everybody. Everyone has a personal story to tell. They are a cohesive group. It is a team effort.”
St. Joseph’s Hospital-South opened in February 2015 to bring high-quality health care services to Southern Hillsborough County in an environment designed to help patients heal. Part of BayCare Health System, St. Joseph’s Hospital-South features all-private patient suites and offers emergency care, surgical services, imaging, intensive care, obstetrics, an NICU, cardiac catheterization and more in a peaceful, relaxing and family-centered environment. Located south of Tampa in Riverview, the all-digital, state-of-the-art facility is specially designed to make patients and visitors as comfortable as possible during their hospital experience.
To learn more, visit https://baycare.org/hospitals/st-josephs-hospital-south.
