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 less than three years,” D’Angelo informed The Publish of when he break up time between the entrance strains of Glen Cove Hospital and being an lively obligation 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 wish you to run all emergency drugs.’”
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 comply with, however not as a result of he’s the boss.
“We now have completely different backgrounds, completely different management types, 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 along with his many siblings as a little bit boy.
“And that’s not going to vary,” 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 rather more boots-on-the-ground, or at occasions, in-the-air.
He started his over 25-year profession within the area 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’ll be able to really take individuals again who’re on the brink of loss of life,” he mentioned, emotionally including that so many occasions it’s, sadly, the alternative final result.
“Once 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 drugs for Northwell.
D’Angelo, who had virtually 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 by way of the door.
“I had loads of road credibility then. Folks began to take a look at me because the man who reliably would ship outcomes, get issues performed, and determine issues out.”
“With that credibility, I used to be given an increasing number of leeway to actually problem how we do issues.”
That intensive belief led to D’Angelo and a computer-savvy group to construct “a complete suite of real-time [technological] instruments that the group continues to make use of immediately,” 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 occasions 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 big precedence is continuous to combine Connecticut’s Nuvance Well being — a system that merged with Northwell in Could.
“I feel we’ll make loads of progress within the first yr — and I feel that’s critically essential,” he mentioned.
And, on Wednesday, D’Angelo plans to pay it ahead to all of these grinding at Northwell’s many services.
“I feel it’s actually essential 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.”
