Register for Crain's next Health Pulse webcast, which will explore what changed for hospitals and health care providers during the pandemic and discuss what can be expected in terms of recovery for the rest of 2020 and into 2021. Hear more about the unprecedented challenges and system disruptions the pandemic has caused, particularly in the area of drastically decreased patient volumes. To register, click here.
Mayor Bill de Blasio's appointment of Dr. Dave Chokshi as the city's health commissioner on Tuesday aims to bridge the gap between the Health Department and the public hospital system. Chokshi inherits the job at a time when the city is desperately trying to stave off a resurgence of Covid-19 as well as cascading public health challenges caused by the pandemic.
Chokshi spent the past four years as NYC Health + Hospitals' chief population health officer, overseeing programs such as improving primary care, managing chronic diseases and addressing the social determinants of health.
He said in an interview Tuesday that his top priorities in the new role will be preventing a resurgence of Covid-19, encouraging New Yorkers to get the flu vaccine and a potential coronavirus vaccine if one becomes available, and addressing the reverberating effects of Covid-19 on mental health and other chronic illnesses.
“It all starts with the needs of New Yorkers," Chokshi said. "My north star in this role will be saving as many lives as possible and preventing as much suffering as possible."
To succeed in that role, Chokshi will have to coordinate expertise in controlling infectious diseases at the Health Department with the operational scale at its partner agency, Health + Hospitals, which has community clinics around the city that can provide testing and follow-up care.
"He's the perfect person to restore working relations between the Health Department and H+H, and they cannot succeed without one another," said David Sandman, president and CEO of the New York State Health Foundation. "In the same way we need the city and state to get along and be coordinated, we the public are better off when DOHMH and H+H work productively together."
Chokshi, a 39-year-old born and raised in Baton Rouge, La., served as a health policy adviser in his home state as it was recovering from Hurricane Katrina.
"What I took away was that people already living at the margins are most likely to be marginalized in a time of crisis," Chokshi said last year about his experience in Louisiana.
He was a White House fellow in the Obama administration working to implement the Affordable Care in the Department of Veterans Affairs before he came to New York City. He joined NYC Health + Hospitals in 2014 and has worked both as an administrator focused on improving the quality of care, particularly in the system's outpatient clinics, and as an attending physician at Bellevue Hospital. He is also a clinical associate professor of medicine and population health at the NYU School of Medicine.
"It was time for a change and it was important to have a strong leader ready to step in who had experience," Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a Tuesday press conference. "One thing that distinguishes Dave is his experience in the Department of Health, experience in Health and Hospitals and the ability to think about how to bring all those pieces together."
Colleagues describe Chokshi as thoughtful and capable of building consensus as the city faces difficult decisions regarding the reopening of schools and offering guidance to New Yorkers reliant on public transit.
"Having been a leader at H+H and DOHMH will be an asset for moving those pieces in unison," said Dr. Nicholas Stine, a former colleague at the health system who is now senior vice president for population health at CommonSpirit Health in San Francisco. "I'm confident he can manage these dynamics."
Chokshi's appointment came as a surprise and followed the dramatic departure of Dr. Oxiris Barbot, who shared her resignation letter with The New York Times shortly before de Blasio announced her replacement.
"I leave my post today with deep disappointment that during the most critical public health crisis in our lifetime, that the Health Department's incomparable disease control expertise was not used to the degree it could have been," Barbot wrote.
Barbot clashed with de Blasio over the timing of his decision to close schools in March. Tension was apparent again in May, when he made NYC Health + Hospitals responsible for contact tracing despite the Health Department's decades of experience tracking down New Yorkers who have been exposed to infectious diseases. She also was at odds with the NYPD, with the New York Post reporting she had used controversial language with top police officials to rebuff their demands for personal protective equipment at the height of the crisis. Her presence at de Blasio's Covid-19 briefings became less frequent as NYC Health + Hospitals officials came to serve as the public face for testing and tracing.
Carlina Rivera, chair of the City Council's hospitals committee, said she was disappointed that a Latina leader in city government felt she was forced to leave her position after standing by her decisions.
"Dr. Barbot's departure confirms to experts and advocates watching in the health community what many of us have feared—that there are political-first decisions being made at City Hall at a time when the health and safety of New Yorkers should be our guiding principles," she said in a statement.
Chokshi needs to gain the trust of both the mayor and the city at a point when government health officials are having trouble gaining the public's trust, said Dr. Amanda Parsons, deputy chief medical officer at MetroPlus, the city's insurer, and a former Health Department deputy commissioner.
"I think having somebody that the mayor trusts that is going to be able to speak regularly and be consistently visibly to people is going to be one of the most important things we need out of our commissioner right now," Parsons said.
"between" - Google News
August 06, 2020 at 02:14AM
https://ift.tt/3klqf27
De Blasio's health commissioner pick can bridge divide between Health Department, public hospitals - Crain's New York Business
"between" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2WkNqP8
https://ift.tt/2WkjZfX
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "De Blasio's health commissioner pick can bridge divide between Health Department, public hospitals - Crain's New York Business"
Post a Comment