It was my honor to recently conduct a wide-ranging, one-on-one interview with Michael Dowling in his offices in New York City. The following is a portion of one of several articles published on the America’s Healthcare Leaders website as a result of that interview. To read this and related articles in their entirety, please visit www.americashealthcareleaders.com.
Michael Dowling has been a part of the North Shore-LIJ Health System for the past eighteen years, serving as President and CEO since 2002. He cites his proudest element of the organization as being its very strong emphasis and focus on people. With 48,000 employees serving an area of 7 million people, there is no doubt that people – both employees and patients – are the absolute most important priority and asset to the healthcare system.
It all starts with hiring the very best people, then treating them well and giving them opportunities for training, education, and advancement. With the right people with the right attitude, experience and education on staff, excelling in serving North Shore-LIJ’s customers – the patients and families – becomes second nature.
Dowling explained that he learned the importance of teamwork and having the best people through his experiences playing sports. A very competitive athlete in his youth, Dowling played the Irish national sport, hurling, and was on the team that won the national championship when he was young.
“So back then I learned that the only way you can have a good team is to have the best players. You don’t pick all stars; you have to have the right mix. You have to have the grinders, the offense guys, the defense guys – but they’ve got to work as a team… because nobody wins by themselves.”
To continue reading the full article on the America’s Healthcare Leaders website, please click here.
