NYC Health + Hospitals, MetroPlus Execs, & Others Named to Crain’s 2020 List of “Notable in Health Care”

Edited by: JV Staff

NYC Health + Hospitals Chief Nurse Executive and Senior Vice President Natalia Cineas, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, Ambulatory Care Chief Andrew Wallach, MD, and NYC Care Executive Director Marielle Kress, MetroPlus Health President and Chief Executive Officer Talya Schwartz, as well as NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst’s Emergency Department team, and NYC Health + Hospitals/Community Care hotel isolation team have been named to Crain’s 2020 “Notable in Health Care” list. This year the publication is recognizing women, men and select teams, as opposed to the previous year’s focus on women. Dr. Cineas is recognized for overseeing the system’s 9,000 nurses, and her efforts to recruit and deploy nearly 5,000 additional nurses throughout the system to help maintain safe patient-to-nurse ratios during the peak of the virus in New York City).

Dr. Wallach is recognized for his work in improving quality access to ambulatory care services, and for his leadership in combatting COVID-19, which included nearly tripling testing capacity system-wide and helping to lead the city’s testing and contact tracing efforts. Marielle Kress is recognized for leading efforts to help thousands of uninsured New Yorkers gain quality health care through NYC Care, regardless of their immigration status or ability to pay. Dr. Schwartz is recognized for leading MetroPlus Health for more than 500,000 members and rapidly initiating outreach and support efforts to serve the plan’s membership during the pandemic.

Also, on the list is NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst’s Emergency Department team for their heroic response to the COVID-19 peak in Queens, and NYC Health + Hospitals/Community Care COVID-19 Isolation Hotel Program team are recognized for creating clinical hotel space to help low-acuity patients with COVID-19 safely separate during their recovery while receiving on-site care. Crain’s 2020 “Notable in Health Care” list honors healthcare executives, researchers and clinicians who have profoundly impacted New York City through their professional, civic and philanthropic achievements well as health care heroes on the frontline of the pandemic.

“The “Crain’s Notable in Health Care” recognition is a reflection of the amazing health care system I am fortunate enough to be a part of and serve New Yorkers daily,” said Dr. Natalia Cineas, Senior Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive at NYC Health + Hospitals. “Being in the company of Andrew and Marielle highlights the impressive and tireless talent that contribute to the country’s largest health care system.”

“I’m privileged to work with an extraordinary team of colleagues across New York City and it is an honor to be recognized among my close colleagues,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Ambulatory Care Chief Dr. Andrew Wallach. “There’s a remarkable dedication to the health and well-being of our patient population, and together we’ve demonstrated important progress toward developing new models of care to better anticipate and meet our patients’ needs especially as we continue to combat the lasting impacts of a global pandemic in our ambulatory care settings.”

“It is a great honor to be recognized by Crain’s for our work in guaranteeing health care to uninsured New Yorkers, said NYC Care Executive Director Marielle Kress. “Alongside my colleagues at NYC Health + Hospitals, we have made a commitment to pioneering a better, more inclusive approach to combatting health disparities with high-quality preventive care which is even more important now in a global pandemic.”

“It is a great honor to be recognized by Crain’s for my work to continue expanding health coverage to uninsured New Yorkers during the pandemic,” said President and CEO of MetroPlus Health Plan Talya Schwartz, MD. “To be recognized along such exceptionally accomplished health advocates – including my colleagues from NYC Health + Hospitals – only adds to my gratitude of being named to this list.”

At the peak of the pandemic, NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst’s ED team worked relentlessly at the facility in the heart of a community devastated by the virus. Elmhurst’s ED team quickly ramped up operations to treat surges of critically ill patients. In response, the remarkable staff signed up for extra shifts, stayed for longer hours, and worked tirelessly to care for the patients who needed them most. Those redeployed from other areas of the hospital into the ED also played a critical role in the hospital’s response to the pandemic. The team is recognized for displaying extraordinary resilience in its response to deliver care despite the difficult and harrowing circumstances during the surge.

NYC Health + Hospitals/Community Care COVID-19 Isolation Hotel Program team is also recognized for transforming 1,096 hotel rooms throughout the city into safe isolation spaces for New Yorkers with suspected or confirmed exposure to COVID-19 who couldn’t safely isolate or quarantine at home and creating a place for patients discharged from inpatient and emergency settings They also housed people referred from the Department for Homeless Services; NYC Emergency Management; the COVID-19 Hotline run by Health + Hospitals; COVID-19 testing sites; and community-based organizations and health care providers. At the peak of the COVID-19 surge, within two weeks this team stood up two isolation hotels with more than 500 beds combined to provide both clinical and social support to New Yorkers. This hotel program also serves as the flagship isolation hotel program for the city’s Test & Trace Corps.