Dr. Esti Schabelman is the Chief Medical Officer at Sinai Hospital and Grace Medical Center in Baltimore; he started in this role just as the COVID19 pandemic began and led responses to the pandemic using a team-based approach; he is now leading efforts to reduce length of stay as the hospital faces unprecedented volume along with staffing shortages. He is a board-certified Emergency Physician who earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his MBA from The Wharton School of Business.
He previously served as the Chief Medical Officer for West Baltimore at Lifebridge where he was instrumental in the integration of Grace Medical Center into Lifebridge health. He has been involved in bringing multiple medical clinic practices back to the inner city hospital, which had not had these services in over 20 years, as well as creating pathways and procedures that have kept transfers from Grace within the Lifebridge system.
Prior to joining Lifebridge, he was the Regional Director of Emergency Medicine and Assistant Director of Population Health for the University of Maryland where he managed inner city emergency departments and led the creation of a telemedicine program, an observation unit, and an urgent care center. Prior to that, he was Chief of the Emergency Department at Bon Secours Hospital.
He has since become a recognized leader of Population Health initiatives in Maryland where he is invited to speak frequently on the topic of reducing high utilizer costs and visits; his implementation at Bon Secours led to a 70% reduction in visits, admissions, opiate use, and costs for the highest ED users.
In addition to multiple successful efforts to improve hospital and emergency department flow, Dr. Schabelman led the creation of an American-style ER in Panama, where he was Chief of the ED as well as Chief and Founder of the first chest pain evaluation center in Panama. This involved creating and implementing all the protocols for a Joint Commission-compliant ED and chest pain/STEMI treatment center.
Dr. Schabelman serves on the regional health information exchange clinical board and has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications regarding medical myths. He has been named one of Baltimore Magazine’s Top Doctors in every year since 2019 and one of Becker’s 110 Chief Medical Officer’s to Know in 2023.
