GOUVERNEUR -- Gouverneur Hospital has appointed two physicians to senior medical administrative positions.

George M. Dodds is medical director and Jason Lorenc is medical director of the emergency department at Gouverneur Hospital. The appointments were effective March 1.

Dr. Dodds has served on the medical staff of the hospital since it was re-christened Gouverneur Hospital in January. Prior to this he was an internal medicine physician at the former E. J. Noble Hospital. He has worked as a hospitalist – a specialist in the care of hospitalized patients -- and teaching faculty at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, where he was associate clinical faculty at Columbia Presbyterian Medical School. He worked as a hospitalist at Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst, N.C. where he also was clinical associate faculty in the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, and practiced internal medicine and pediatrics in the communities of Carrboro and Chapel Hill, N.C.

During his career, he has acted as a mentor and supervisor for medical students and resident physicians.

He earned his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

As medical director, Dodds will have responsibility for the quality of medical care at Gouverneur Hospital. He will work with medical and administrative leaders to oversee data gathering, monitor national and state indicators of quality, and align care with national, state, and industry standards and best practices, with the goal of quality and performance improvement.

Dodds succeeds Donald Schuessler, Jr., MD, E. J. Noble Hospital’s medical director for many years.

Dr. Lorenc assumes medical oversight of Gouverneur Hospital’s ER while also overseeing Canton-Potsdam Hospital’s emergency department. Lorenc is also medical director of the Potsdam Volunteer Rescue Squad. He is a seasoned emergency medicine practitioner and is well versed in patient flow (from pre-hospital, to emergency room, to discharge or admission), quality measurement, and performance improvement.

Lorenc is a board-certified emergency medicine physician who joined Canton-Potsdam Hospital’s medical staff in 2008. He provided emergency medical care for patients of rural Pennsylvania as part of the Geisinger Medical Center’s Danville, Pa. Level 1 Trauma Center. His responsibilities there included base-station command and flight physician duties for Life Flight Aeromedical Services, as well as administrative responsibilities for coordination of residency education and supervision of medical students and interns.

He earned his medical degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has proficiencies in bedside ultrasound, conscious sedation, cardioversion, central venous/arterial cannulization, tube and needle thoracostomy, pericentesis, and lumbar puncture as well as many specialty certifications.

Lorenc will work with the medical and nursing staff of the Gouverneur Hospital ER to measure and enhance quality of care in alignment with national, state, and medical-scientific standards.

For more information interested individuals may visit www.gvnrhospital.org.