As chief medical officer of Sharp Coronado Hospital, Gregory Apel, MD, oversees clinical operations and emergency services at Coronado Island's only acute-care facility on Prospect Place. Hospital-wide wellness programming administered through the Sharp Coronado Hospital Sewall Healthy Living Center extends preventive health education to the 92118 community under the same institutional umbrella he directs. Board certified in emergency medicine with a 2012 medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, he guided the department through a $46.2 million expansion that grew the ED from eight to fifteen beds and secured Primary Stroke Center certification in 2024. Discharge-planning pathways under his administrative oversight route post-acute patients requiring extended skilled nursing to Villa Coronado Skilled Nursing Facility on the island, preserving continuity for Coronado residents. Under his leadership the emergency department earned both a 2021 Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence Award for patient experience and a 2025 Emergency Nurses Association Lantern Award — the first in Sharp Coronado's 87-year history dating to the hospital's founding in 1938.