Michael D. Israel, president and CEO, Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth), of which Westchester Medical Center and Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital are both members.
100 Woods Road, Valhalla
914-493-7000
What was your path to becoming a health network CEO?
“I’ve spent the majority of my career in health-care administration. One of my earlier roles was in Houston where I was executive vice president at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital/Texas Heart Institute, and then I was fortunate to serve as the CEO of Duke University Hospital, as well as the university’s vice chancellor for health affairs, and vice president of the Duke University Health System. I was also the COO of the then North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System. “While all of these roles where in health-care administration, each was unique, due to circumstances surrounding each organization during the time I was there as well as the cultural differences of the communities each served. I worked with many smart, savvy and dedicated health-care professionals and the many lessons learned during my career I apply to my daily work at WMCHealth.
What makes Westchester Medical Center and Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital distinctive?
“Westchester Medical Center and Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital are regional hubs for tertiary care (advanced subspecialties) as well as highly-specialized (quaternary) care such as organ transplantation. The hospitals are the primary referral facilities for all other hospitals in the Hudson Valley and perform as academic medical centers, playing host to board-approved medical research and bedside trials. “Both hospitals are members of our WMCHealth Network, a health-care system with 10 hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and over 800 providers at numerous locations around the Hudson Valley. “Westchester Medical Center is the flagship hospital in our WMCHealth Network and in 2021, we were honored to partner with New York and serve as the Hudson Valley Region Hub in the state’s Regional Vaccine Network. As such, we’ve led a group of more than 300 hospitals, health-care organizations, faith-based groups and community associations that have helped ensure the equitable and efficient distribution of Covid-19 vaccines to Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam, Dutchess, Ulster and Sullivan counties. In this important role, we’ve coordinated the distribution of more than 2.5 million vaccine doses to date, plus we’ve supported the operation of all state-run mass vaccination centers in the Hudson Valley. Currently, Westchester Medical Center and Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital are serving as New York state vaccination centers for adults and children.
What are the specialties of Westchester Medical Center and Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital?
“Westchester Medical Center is known for offering a wide array of advanced care services, many of which are offered nowhere else in the Hudson Valley. Our hospital is home to the region’s only Level I adult trauma center; a burn center that serves patients from our region and much of upstate New York; organ transplantation of the heart, kidney and liver; cardiac surgery, cardiac catheterization and other advance heart and vascular services; a high-risk OB-GYN care program, and an array of neuroscience care offerings that includes a New York state-designated comprehensive stroke center and more. Westchester Medical Center is also a specialty center in the treatment of Long-Covid Syndrome. Our doctors were among the first in the nation to identify this post-infection illness, and launched a program to provide multidisciplinary care tailored to each patient. Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital is an acute care center for pediatric patients. This specialty hospital, the only one of its kind in the Hudson Valley, is home to the region’s only pediatric intensive care unit; a level IV neonatal intensive care unit (NICU); comprehensive pediatric cardiology and neuroscience services; and a pediatric hematology and oncology program known around the world as a leading center for care and research.”
Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems. What are the advantages of such networks?
“Health-care networks like WMCHealth provide many benefits to the communities they serve, such as making advanced care more accessible to a greater number of communities. By doing so, we are supporting a continuity of care for our neighbors in the region. For example, via telemedicine specialists from Westchester Medical Center and Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital support care at member hospitals around the Hudson Valley. Also, our WMCHealth Physicians provider practice employs hundreds of physicians who share information and collaborate on patient care. So if an individual is in need of inpatient care, we can provide either a seamless admission to one of our WMCHealth hospitals, or an in-network transfer to either Westchester Medical Center or Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital for advanced care. “Lastly, the ‘strength in numbers’ phrase is certainly true when it comes to health-care systems. Hospitals are the anchors of many communities, particularly the smaller ones, from both support and economic standpoints. Many hospitals are a community’s largest employer.”
What do you see in the future for your hospital?
“The future is bright for Westchester Medical Center, Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital and our network as a whole. “From a network standpoint, later this year we are scheduled to open a reimagined HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston and will move to complete the transformation project at WMCHealth’s Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis. “Here on our Westchester campus we have exciting plans in place for a new critical care tower, which is a key component of a larger strategy to increase community access to our tertiary services.”
For more, visit westchestermedicalcenter.org.
MARIA FARERI CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
(part of Westchester Medical Center Health Network)
100 Woods Road, Valhalla
914-493-7000
For more, visit mariafarerichildrens.org.
