Emanuel President and CEO John Sigsbury was recently honored by the Turlock Rotary Club for his outstanding service to the community.
“We awarded John the Paul Harris Fellowship, which is the highest award one can get in Rotary,” explained Rotarian Bill Gibbs, who nominated Sigsbury for the honor. “He has been a visionary for medical care in our community, and what he’s accomplished in seven years at Emanuel is just amazing.”
Sigsbury was surprised by the award, which was presented to him at an October meeting.
“I thought I was there just to introduce Dr. Harold Tabaie before he made a presentation about our new cardiovascular services available at Emanuel,” Sigsbury said. “I had no idea Bill and the club had this planned. I was very surprised and very honored.”
Since coming to Emanuel in 2003, Sigsbury has overseen the design and construction of the $30 million Emanuel Critical Care Center, opened the Emanuel Cancer Center and formed a partnership with Stanford Hospital & Clinics and the Stanford University School of Medicine to open the Stanford Emanuel Radiation Oncology Center. In addition, he opened multiple Emanuel Family Practice & Specialty Associates offices to provide primary and specialty care to area families. Also under Sigsbury’s leadership, 52 new physicians have been recruited to the Turlock area.
Sigsbury is currently leading the expansion of Emanuel’s cardiovascular services, which commenced in April with the opening of the hospital’s first Cardiac Cath and Interventional Lab. Early 2011, open heart surgery will begin at Emanuel in a newly renovated operating suite. Concurrently, Sigsbury is overseeing the construction of two new state-of-the-art cardiac operating suites which are scheduled to open in late 2012.
“The community has embraced every single project we’ve undertaken under his leadership,” said Gibbs, who also actively volunteers on behalf of the hospital. “That means he’s doing something right.”
As part of the award, $1,000 was donated by the Turlock Rotary to the Rotary International Foundation which supports humanitarian projects worldwide.