COLUMBUS, Ind. – After 35 years with the organization, Dr. Tom Sonderman, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Columbus Regional Health (CRH), has announced his intent to retire on March 31, 2025. He has served as Chief Medical Officer for 21 years.
“On behalf of CRH, I want to offer congratulations to Dr. Sonderman, and express our most sincere appreciation to him for many impressive years of dedication, leadership, and advocacy for this organization, and the patients and communities we serve,” said CRH President/COO Steve Baker.
In 1989, Dr. Sonderman joined the CRH (then Bartholomew County Hospital) Medical Staff as an emergency physician. He was one of the founding members of the Emergency Physicians Inc – Columbus (EPIC) medical group, providing uninterrupted emergency physician services to CRH for over 30 years.
During his tenure, Dr. Sonderman was at the helm of numerous initiatives, including launching PromptMed urgent care center, the adult hospitalist and pediatric hospitalist programs, the creation of CRH Physicians, and numerous building and expansion projects. He served as CRH Chief of Staff from 2001 through 2002 and assumed the CMO role in 2003. He helped lead CRH through the 2008 flood, Ebola and H1N1 scares, and the COVID pandemic.
Columbus Regional Health has named current Associate Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lee Kiser to assume the role of CMO upon Dr. Sonderman’s retirement
Dr. Kiser has been caring for patients at CRH for more than 20 years, both in the inpatient and private practice settings. He has served in multiple leadership roles including Medical Section Chief and Chief of Staff. In addition to his full-time role as ACMO, which he assumed in 2022, Dr. Kiser intermittently continues to see patients as a hospitalist.
