CORTLAND, N.Y. — Dr. Russell Firman has been named Cortland Regional Medical Center’s Chief Medical Officer, effective Monday, March 13, 2017. Dr. Firman will serve as the liaison between the medical staff and the hospital administration, and he brings over 25 years of clinical and administrative knowledge to his new role.
Dr. Russell Firman
Dr. Firman has worked in clinical and administrative positions at Cortland Regional Medical Center (CRMC) since 1999. A full-time emergency medicine physician, he has served as CRMC’s emergency department medical director and sat on many of Cortland Regional’s clinical committees, including the Medical Executive Committee and the Infectious Disease Committee, as well as being a physician advisor.
“Dr. Firman’s decade-long service and extensive clinical leadership in the ED, on our medical staff committees, and in elected offices will allow him to balance the needs of our growing medical organization and its providers,” said Dr. Kirwin Gibbs, president of CRMC’s medical staff and head of radiology. “Dr. Firman’s longstanding connections to staff and patients will support the mission of our organization to provide our community with excellent medical care.”
Dr. Firman received his B.S. from Rochester Institute of Technology and his medical degree from SUNY–Upstate Medical University. He continues to be an active emergency department physician at other upstate New York hospitals, including Albany Memorial and Samaritan Hospital of Troy, and he has served as an assistant professor of emergency medicine at SUNY–Upstate Medical University since 2003
Dr. Firman’s career has taken him to a variety of emergency care settings throughout the East coast including Connecticut, Ohio, Rhode Island and West Virginia. He was born and raised in upstate New York and when he had the opportunity to join Cortland Regional Medical Center, he knew he was “coming home.” Dr. Firman is excited to leverage his diverse background in this new role while continuing to work alongside his friends and colleagues. He is especially anxious to start meeting with the medical staff, saying “When you get out and circulate, listening to what people need and what challenges they face, that’s where the great ideas come from.”
Regarding the hospital’s future and continued growth, Dr. Firman is very optimistic. “Cortland Regional has made tremendous investments in recruiting talented physicians and medical staff. We are an excellent organization committed to caring for our community. We are still raising the bar and with an affiliation on the horizon, the future only looks brighter,” he says.
