Hospital woos nationally known spinal cord doctor

SARASOTA — Sarasota Memorial Hospital named a noted doctor who treats spinal cord injuries to lead its new Rehabilitation Pavilion in advance of its opening this spring.

As medical director of rehabilitation services, Dr. Samuel Grissom will oversee all treatments for patients recovering from brain and spinal cord injuries, as well as people working to overcome stroke and neurological disorders and orthopedic and musculoskeletal conditions.

Grissom, 53, grew up in Sarasota and graduated from Bradenton Christian School in 1981, before receiving his medical degree from the University of Florida.

For the past decade, he has worked as medical director of Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson, Miss., and previously had jobs at Emory University School of Medicine and the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in Lakewood, N.J.

“It will be my privilege to reconnect with the community I grew up in and join the exceptional team at SMH,” says Grissom in the statement. He will become the only board-certified physician in spinal cord injury medicine in Southwest Florida by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Sarasota Memorial's $50 million, five-story rehabilitation pavilion is scheduled to open this spring with 44 private patient rooms and therapy areas that will replace the hospital's rehabilitation unit in the East Tower that has been used for more than three decades.

The 74,000-square-foot pavilion represents the latest in a series of new healthcare projects on the hospital's campus. Four years ago, the hospital debuted a new $200 million bed tower on its campus.