2010 NETWORKING® MAGAZINE’S DAVID AWARD HONOREE.

STEVEN L. STRONGWATER, M.D.

Chief Executive Officer, Stony Brook University Medical Center

Although he has served as a professor, administrator and practicing physician for 25 years, Dr. Steven Strongwater embraces his position as Chief Executive Officer of Stony Brook University Medical Center, saying it affords him “a way to do more good for larger numbers of people than I could do on a one-on-one basis.” Strongwater comes to Stony Brook with extensive experience in patient safety and quality performance, and he predicts, “If we organize the structure of medicine correctly, we will dramatically enhance patient experience in populations that need care.”

Only 18 months after Strongwater’s appointment, Stony Brook University Medical Center received the Healthcare Association of New York's (HANYS) Pinnacle Award for Quality and Patient Safety, and the Nassau Suffolk Hospital Council’s inaugural Excellence in Patient Safety Award. “We have reduced mortality successively over three years and we’re getting better every year,” he remarks. In the late 1980s, Strongwater participated in an early quality performance improvement program set outside the business-oriented arena. His book, “A Facilitators Guide for Implementing Changes in Healthcare,” is one of the first books on quality performance improvement programs geared to the healthcare industry.

In addition to patient safety, Strongwater has brought on board staff to provide services not previously available at Stony Brook, such as interventional stroke treatment, bringing the advantages of heart stents to the brain, and non-invasive imaging of coronary arteries, yielding results through CT scan and low dose radiation rather than stress tests and invasive dye tracking. Under Stongwater, the hospital implemented an electronic patient record system, an important part of the future of medical care. And, under its tertiary partnership with Eastern Long Island Hospital, Peconic Bay Medical Center and Southampton Hospital, Stony Brook is making an effort to initiate electronic connectivity between the hospitals and nursing homes, physicians’ offices and rehabilitation facilities to make patients records more accessible.

“On my watch,” says Strongwater, the hospital has opened a new Cancer Center—phase one of a major modernization program that includes part of the emergency department, a women’s pavilion and operating rooms. In November 2009, the hospital opened a pediatric emergency department, and is slated to build a new psychiatric emergency department. “We have also modernized technology,” he adds, “particularly in the area of imaging, enhancing non-invasive diagnoses.”

Despite difficult economic times, Strongwater says the hospital is working to retain employees and develop their career paths. Noting that improved patient care starts with the staff, he has instituted a “high reliability organization” program, or HRO. “Driven by the staff on the units,” Strongwater says, “ideas are proposed to improve care and make the environment better for patients. Administration helps them move that forward.”

“We view our role as a resource to the community and a part of the quality of life in Suffolk County,” notes Strongwater. Stony Brook Hospital organizes about 1,000 community based programs annually for family members of all ages. Strongwater works closely with organizations like Rotary and its Gift of Life program, and is proud to have chaired last October’s American Heart Association “Heart Walk” on the Stony Brook University campus.

Most importantly, Strongwater conveys to residents that “in Stony Brook University Medical Center, the community has an academic medical center in their backyard.” He adds, “Academic medical centers discover new knowledge and transfer that into the community, bringing new technologies that are not available at community hospitals.”

Born and raised in the Bronx, Strongwater was encouraged to get involved with “the sciences” when he attended Bronx High School of Science. He attended the University of Rochester, leaving there after three years to go to SUNY Upstate Medical Center for his degree and residency in internal medicine. After suffered a slipped disk lifting a patient during his internship, he was reassigned to “light duty” in rheumatology, and he found a “new love.”

“Rheumatology dealt with the medical mysteries of health care. I found that fascinating and still do,” remarks Strongwater. “We tended to see things that people couldn’t explain—unknown causes of fever, funny rashes, and unusual symptoms. Many cases turn out to be rheumatologic conditions, in part, because rheumatology is not really one disorder. Most of the major recent advances in the treatment of immunologic disorders came through study in the field of rheumatology.” He went on to complete a Fellowship in rheumatology at the University of Michigan Medical Center.

Strongwater was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester. “It was a new medical school and I did a little bit of research, but also became involved in running the curriculum for the undergrad medical school, the fellowship and internship program in internal medicine, and outpatient practices for the Department of Medicine, and eventually, all practices.”

Strongwater would spend the next 10 years at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, entering service as Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs. After a restructuring, he was appointed Hospital Director. In Connecticut, his responsibilities included operating the state prison healthcare system, consisting of some 18,000 inmates at 21 sites.

A prolific author of book chapters and articles for medical journals, Strongwater has also served on numerous committees and has been a speaker, panelist and lecturer locally and around the country. His professional service includes membership on the board of Greater New York Hospital Association and the national University Health System Consortium, and he chairs the American Hospital Association’s committee on health professions. He serves on the board of the Nassau Suffolk Hospital Council, where the number one issue is preventing budgetary cuts.

East Setauket residents, Strongwater and his wife Elaine, who works at the Huntington Arts Council, have two sons: Dan, a college student, and Ian, who is participating in a research project on dementia at a Veterans home. He enjoys reading and walks with his wife. “Medicine’s been a great career for me,” remarks Strongwater. “We touch people’s lives. I consider it a gift and privilege to practice medicine.” And he adds, “Coming to Stony Brook was like coming home. It brought me back into the SUNY system, back to New York State, closer to my family, and returned me to my roots.”

NETWORKING® January 2010