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Dr. Katz Named on City & State’s ‘2021 Pride Power 100’ List
Jun 22, 2021
President and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals Mitchell Katz, MD, has been named in City & State’s “2021 Pride Power 100” list. Ranking 8th, Dr. Katz is recognized for his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under his stewardship, the country’s largest public health system saw ICU capacity quadruple, a robust telehealth platform was launched and patients were safely transitioned to get care virtually, and a complex patient level-loading system was built that moved over 850 COVID-19 patients in the first NYC wave to ensure each hospital was operating safely. These changes, and more, supported NYC Health + Hospitals to react to the ever-changing COVID-19 pandemic during the surges, saved thousands of lives, supported the establishment of the Test & Trace Corps, and began vaccinating New Yorkers against the virus in late December 2020. In addition to his leadership role, Dr. Katz is a primary care provider at NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Gouverneur. City & State’s “2021 Pride Power 100” program honors LGBTQ leaders in New York who are still striving for full equality.
“It is always an honor to be recognized among my colleagues, but our public health system’s accomplishments are truly a reflection of our over-40,000 employees who oversee every aspect of patient-care, every day,” said President and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals Mitchell Katz, MD. “If it weren’t for our workforce’s dedication, innovation, compassion, and fearless work during an unprecedented global pandemic, the millions of New Yorkers we treated in every possible care modality – from our ICUs, community clinics, virtual care appointments, testing tents, and vaccine pods – would not have received the high-quality, life-saving, culturally competent care everyone deserves. I share this recognition with our entire workforce.”
Dr. Katz lead NYC Health + Hospitals through the COVID-19 pandemic, during which NYC was referred to as “the epicenter of the epicenter.” The rapid patient volume increase presenting with severe COVID-19 symptoms led the public health system to triple and quadruple ICU capacity at its 11 acute care facilities within weeks. During the height of the pandemic, NYC Health + Hospitals cared for approximately 4,000 COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Katz was appointed President and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals in January 2018. During this time, Dr. Katz has focused on advancing the transformation of the public health care system with numerous new initiatives to expand access to primary care services, reduce administrative costs, invest in more front-line clinical staff, and build financial stability, priorities that ultimately supported the system’s unified response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fiscal year end 2019 results showed the health system was able to close 65 percent of its $1.8B structural gap through additional revenue, savings, managed care negotiations, and getting New Yorkers enrolled into insurance. In September 2020, NYC Care, a healthcare access program for New Yorkers who are not eligible for or cannot afford health insurance, launched City-wide under Dr. Katz’s stewardship, four months ahead of schedule.
Dr. Katz is also a primary care provider at NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Gouverneur.
Previously, Dr. Katz was the Director of the Los Angeles County Health Agency, an agency that combines the Departments of Health Services, Public Health, and Mental Health into a single entity so as to provide more integrated care and programming within Los Angeles. He is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Medical School. He completed an internal medicine residency at UCSF Medical School and was an RWJ Clinical Scholar.