NJHA Board Chair Doug Struyk (right) presents Dr. Dellinger with his award.
Congratulations to R. Phillip Dellinger, MD, senior critical care attending at Cooper University Health Care, Director of the Cooper Research Institute, and Professor of Medicine and Distinguished Scholar at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU) for receiving the New Jersey Hospital Association’s Lifetime Achievement, Clinical Excellence Award. Dr. Dellinger was among 14 individuals and organizations honored for exemplary service to the people of New Jersey during the COVID-19 pandemic at an awards ceremony July 15.
Dr. Dellinger, an internationally known clinician, researcher, and sepsis expert, had planned to retire in October 2020 after a distinguished 40-year career in medicine, more than twenty of those years having been at Cooper. However, as it did with many things, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed those plans. Because of his expertise in sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome, Dr. Dellinger felt a duty to step back into the clinical setting to work alongside Cooper’s critical care team to help treat the more than 3,000 COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital over the past year.
NJHA also recognized Dr. Dellinger for his state and national leadership in improving sepsis care and outcomes and sharing that expertise with colleagues through NJHA quality improvement collaboratives.
Dr. Dellinger is featured in season 2 of Cooper’s Stories in Care web series highlighting Cooper team members’ experiences during the pandemic.