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Physicians dedicated to providing care to the community

September 28, 2018

Riverside Healthcare is pleased to announce two winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Ahamed Kutty, MD and Richard D. Hess, DDS.

Dr. Kutty has been on staff with Riverside Medical Center since 1987, making him the first pulmonologist in the community. Throughout his career, Dr. Kutty has served on numerous committees including:

  • Quality Improvement
  • Inpatient Critical Care
  • ICU & Trauma
  • Respiratory Therapy
  • And more
Professionally, Dr. Kutty is a member of the American College of Chest Physicians, the American Society of Critical Care and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. He graduated from Calicut Medical College in Kerala, India and completed a Pulmonary Fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Dr. Kutty was trained in sleep medicine at Presence St. Lukes Medical Center, following this he established all diagnostic capabilities for pulmonary disease at Riverside Medical Center. He was instrumental in development of the Riverside Sleep Disorder Institute, which opened in the late 1980s and was the one of the first sleep labs in community hospitals in Illinois.


In addition to his exceptional career, Dr. Kutty has authored the book “Adam’s Gene and the Mitochondrial Eve,” a thought-provoking book about non-incestuous decent of man from Adam and Eve.

Dr. Hess came on staff with Riverside Medical Center in 1967. He received his Doctor of Dental Surgery from the University of Illinois College of Dentistry. Throughout his years of private practice dentistry, he has proven to be an integral part of the Kankakee community and in the dental field. A few of the professional dentistry boards he was a member of include:

  • President of Kankakee District Dental Society from 1976 to 1977
  • Officer of Illinois State Dental Society from 1984 to 1992
  • President of the Illinois State Dental Society from 1991 to 1992
  • Chairman of the Department of Professional Regulation from 1994 to 2002
  • Member of Corporate Board of Delta Dental of Illinois from 2002 – 2017
Dr. Hess also served on several community boards, including Kankakee County Rotary, the YMCA, the Kankakee County Symphony Orchestra, the Kankakee County Board of Health and Trustee of Riverside Medical Center.


Additionally, Dr. Hess served as a captain in the US Army for nine years and he taught at the University of Illinois College of Dentistry.


The Riverside Medical Staff Lifetime Achievement Award was created to recognize members of the RMC staff who has made an outstanding contribution to the quality of healthcare delivered in this community, the growth and development of the clinical services provided at Riverside, demonstrated leadership amongst the physician’s peers, and/or provided outstanding mentoring of colleagues or clinical trainees.
The Lifetime Achievement Award is a celebration of the accomplishments and career of Riverside’s distinguished physicians.
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