Dhaval Desai, MD, director of hospital medicine at Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital, has been named Outstanding Clinician of the Year by Emory University’s Department of Medicine. Each year, the Department of Medicine gives awards in multiple categories, from clinical to research to education.

Desai was awarded this honor from among more than 800 faculty in the divisions of cardiology; digestive diseases; endocrinology, metabolism and lipids; general medicine and geriatrics; hospital medicine; infectious diseases; pulmonary, allergy, critical care and sleep medicine; renal medicine; and rheumatology.

The criteria for the award are outstanding quality of patient care, commitment to team-oriented delivery of patient care, excellent rapport with non-physician clinical staff,
participation in quality improvement projects, accessibility and commitment to collaboration with other physicians and dedication to the continuing education of physician colleagues through lecture and informal discussion of medical cases.

Desai has worked at Emory Saint Joseph’s since 2012, and served as the director of hospital medicine since July 2015. During his tenure, the hospital has seen a significant increase in patient satisfaction, and a decrease in patients’ length of stay.

Emory Healthcare hospitalists are board-certified internal medicine physicians who specialize in the care of hospitalized patients. They are experienced in diagnosing and managing acute medical illnesses that hospitalized patients commonly suffer, and provide care 24 hours a day at all six Emory Healthcare hospitals.