Dr. John D'Angelo wrote a letter to Northwell CEO Michael Dowling in 2003, asking the high-profile chief if the well being system would create a pay-gap program for veterans transitioning out of service and into civilian medical roles.
“He didn't know me. I used to be right here for under three years,” D'Angelo advised The Publish of when he break up time between the entrance strains of Glen Cove Hospital and being an lively responsibility Military reservist physician.
“He wrote me again and mentioned, ‘Completely, we're doing this.' I grew to become the primary recipient of it. He approached me after commencement from that management program and mentioned, ‘We would like you to run all emergency medication.'”
Now, after 23 years on the helm, Dowling has one other appointment for D'Angelo — his successor as CEO, beginning Wednesday.
“I get to be a part of the following evolution,” D'Angelo mentioned, lauding his predecessor, who got here to New York from Eire and labored many soiled blue-collar jobs as “somebody you need to observe, however not as a result of he's the boss.
“Now we have totally different backgrounds, totally different management kinds, however I feel we each have an actual dedication to the aim of why we do what we do,” mentioned D'Angelo, who got here to West Babylon from the West Bronx together with his many siblings as a bit of boy.
“And that's not going to alter,” he mentioned close to his new workplace at Northwell's New Hyde Park headquarters.
Whereas Dowling rose within the ranks of public well being administration, D'Angelo's emergency medical tenure has been way more boots-on-the-ground, or at instances, in-the-air.
He started his over 25-year profession within the discipline as an urgently wanted flight doctor on helicopters throughout residency at Pennsylvania's Geisinger Medical Middle.
“There are such a lot of tales the place you possibly can truly take individuals again who're on the brink of loss of life,” he mentioned, emotionally including that so many instances it's, sadly, the other end result.
“After I take into consideration these tales, it actually retains me grounded in why we do what we do, the significance of what we do, and the aim of what we do.”
Days on the frontlines
Since these early days, he has ridden on the again of ambulances and, like on the helicopter, introduced trauma sufferers again from loss of life's door within the working room earlier than working emergency medication for Northwell.
D'Angelo, who had nearly pursued a extra routine orthopedic surgical procedure gig, mentioned he was instantly hooked on the life-saving “detective work” of assessing sufferers as they rushed via the door.
“I had a variety of road credibility then. Individuals began to take a look at me because the man who reliably would ship outcomes, get issues accomplished, and determine issues out.”
“With that credibility, I used to be given an increasing number of leeway to essentially problem how we do issues.”
That intensive belief led to D'Angelo and a computer-savvy crew to construct “a complete suite of real-time [technological] instruments that the group continues to make use of right this moment,” he added.
Having beforehand managed hurricane impacts and the Ebola outbreak, D'Angelo was tasked as an operations chief in the course of the pandemic's worst phases. He managed “the entire 9 yards” from testing and vaccines to emergency operations for sufferers.
“That was one of many scariest instances in my profession, but in addition probably the most rewarding,” he mentioned. “Covid was an actual show of what's required, I feel, of well being care leaders going ahead.”
Now, it's D'Angelo's flip to cement a brand new legacy for the behemoth of the tri-state, as a major precedence is continuous to combine Connecticut's Nuvance Well being — a system that merged with Northwell in Could.
“I feel we'll make a variety of progress within the first 12 months — and I feel that's critically vital,” he mentioned.
And, on Wednesday, D'Angelo plans to pay it ahead to all of these grinding at Northwell's many amenities.
“I feel it's actually vital that I get on the market on day one and simply go to our individuals,” he mentioned. “I wish to stroll the flooring, thank individuals, and reply any questions…I'm very excited.”
