When the Schuylkill County Chamber of Commerce chose to honor St. Luke’s physician Gregory Dobash, MD, for his history of caring for the desperately needy, at-risk and neglected population in the county, they created a special award.

Dr. Dobash was announced as the first-ever recipient of the Humanitarian of the Year award from the Chamber at its Annual Luncheon on May 3 and will receive the award at its Annual Awards Breakfast on June 12.  

A family medicine, obesity medicine and addiction medicine specialist, Dr. Dobash is based at St. Luke’s Ashland Family Practice and Rural Health Centers in Hometown and Ringtown, though his commitment and efforts also benefit the needy and underserved across Schuylkill County.

The Humanitarian of the Year award recognizes Dr. Dobash for his work leading the St. Luke’s Rural Residency Team in providing care, wellness services and education to the homeless, people suffering from mental illness or the disease of addiction, the economically challenged and other chronically sick and neglected who often live on the outer edge of the society.

Jeanette Triano Sinn, executive director of Servant to All and My Father’s House homeless shelter in Pottsville, originally nominated Dr. Dobash for the Chamber’s Business Man of the Year award.

“Dr. Dobash and the St. Luke’s Rural Medicine Residency team are a blessing to the homeless, unsheltered and at-risk people they provide care to, addressing medical needs that would otherwise go unmet,” said Triano Sinn. “We are grateful for his vision, dedication and passion in partnering with our organization to serve the community, and we congratulate him on this award and thank him for his leadership in service to others!”

However, in reviewing Triano Sinn’s nomination, “the Awards Committee became acutely aware of some significant ‘servant leadership’ and humanitarian contributions being made to several nonprofit organizations by Dr. Greg Dobash,” explained Robert S. Carl, Jr., president and CEO of the Chamber.

“While his work was viewed ‘competitively’ in some of our award categories, the depth and breadth of his ‘servant leadership’ and humanitarian work seemed far reaching,” Carl continued. “As such, the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce Awards Committee decided to award Dr. Greg Dobash a special Humanitarian of the Year award in 2024, to recognize his great work and significant time commitment in the service to others in need.” 

Dr. Dobash lives in Mountain Top with his wife, Stacey, and their dog, Romeo.  The couple has a daughter at Union College in NY, and a son who attends the Keswick School in Virginia.

After joining St. Luke’s in 2012, Dr. Dobash helped found the Rural Medicine Residency Program with Thomas McGinley, MD, in 2018, the first of its kind in Pennsylvania. He is board certified in Family Medicine, Addiction Medicine and Obesity Medicine and is a Wilderness Medicine Fellow.

In 2022, he began the street medicine walk-in clinic at Servants to All homeless shelter, then integrated psychiatric services and telemedicine at the clinic. He has hosted fundraisers to benefit the homeless and initiated public health efforts to increase vaccination rates among the minority population in Schuylkill County. He has assisted Servants to All and the Hope Center in Schuylkill County to initiate harm reduction, reduce domestic violence and prevent and reduce substance use disorder/opiate use disorder, also providing naloxone and anti-vaping education in schools.

Dr. Dobash works with the county’s Sexual Assault Resource & Counseling Center to prevent abuse and treat victims of sexual violence and human trafficking.

Through the Rural Residency, he prepares the next generation of physicians to continue this work, which includes directing the St.  Luke’s Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program.  Through collaboration with Miners Emergency Department, Community Health and Rural Medicine, the volume of overdose victims presenting at St. Luke’s Miners Campus has decreased by 57 % since 2016.

“Dr. Dobash is a superb physician, teacher and person!” said Thomas McGinley, MD. “His dedication to serving his patients and communities is exemplary, as is his teaching of residents and medical students. His advocacy for marginalized populations serves as a role model for others. He is respected by his peers, patients and colleagues. It is an honor to work with him.”

 

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 300+ outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke’s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital.

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.  In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school campus.  It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 45 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 400 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke’s, a member of the Children’s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley’s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.  It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital.  The Network’s flagship University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from Fortune/PINC AI 11 times total and eight years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.  In 2021, St. Luke’s was identified as one of the 15 Top Health Systems nationally.  Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.  The Network is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.

Information provided to TVL by:
Sam Kennedy