His drive by no means flatlined.
Michael Dowling, the outgoing CEO of Northwell Well being, has revealed intimately to The Put up how he went from janitor to serving to to construct a behemoth system of 28 tri-state hospitals and 1,050 outpatient facilities from a single Lengthy Island facility over three many years.
“It’s been an attention-grabbing journey,” mentioned Dowling, 75, who grew up impoverished in Eire and lived in a thatched-roof home with out operating water, to The Put up, recalling how he left house for New York at 16 within the Nineteen Sixties.
“I labored on the boats in Manhattan, I labored in development, I labored within the plumbing enterprise primarily based out of New Rochelle — however largely doing loads of work in Yonkers within the Bronx. I labored cleansing out bars in Queens,” mentioned Dowling, who will step down from his high spot in October.
Sweating in boat boiler rooms, sweeping flooring as a custodian, and performing some other guide labor by no means bothered the person from Knockaderry, who mentioned it was nice to simply be “capable of put just a little cash in your pocket” for the primary time.
He then labored and saved sufficient to get an undergraduate arts diploma and finally earn a grasp’s in human-services coverage in 1974 from Fordham College, the place Dowling started instructing social coverage and rose to the rank of assistant dean.
In 1995, after incomes a refined resume within the Division of Well being and Human Companies and different high-ranking locations, he was recruited as an govt to North Shore College Hospital in Manhasset.
“I knew it will prove higher than what I had rising up,” mentioned Dowling, who turned CEO of the rising hospital system in 2002 and was later named grand marshal of Manhattan’s 2017 St. Patrick’s Day Parade in recognition of his success.
“You do the perfect work you presumably can. You deal with folks properly. You’re employed more durable than anyone else. You give it your finest,” he mentioned. “If you sort of climb the ladder of life, you don’t know the place the highest rung is.”
Surgical precision
Dowling entered uncharted waters shortly when he helped merge North Shore with failing Glen Cove Hospital within the mid-Nineties, beginning a domino impact that reshaped healthcare by finally absorbing a number of underperforming amenities on Lengthy Island.
“There have been no well being techniques in existence in any respect on this a part of the nation,” he mentioned. “If you acquired to about 1996, we had about 9 hospitals. … Most individuals had been taking a look at us and pondering, ‘What the heck are you doing?’ “
The drama flared that 12 months when North Shore started one other merger, this time a contentious becoming a member of with its longtime rival, Lengthy Island Jewish of New Hyde Park.
Though the 2 sides had a lot “animosity” that they needed to meet “in a impartial location” to get the deal performed, the federal authorities turned the actual impediment, Dowling recalled.
“The Justice Division, I imagine in response to advocacy by the insurance coverage firms, sued us and took us to courtroom to forestall the merger,” Dowling mentioned. “It ended up at a two-week courtroom trial — and we gained.”
The acquisitions within the Nineties paved the best way for Northwell’s growth into New York Metropolis, Westchester County, and, extra not too long ago, Connecticut, with an April merger with Nuvance Well being.
Dowling mentioned the healthcare large now has its sights set on New Jersey.
“In case you’ve traveled for greater than a half an hour and also you don’t see one in every of our places, name us as a result of we’ve acquired to place one thing in there,” he quipped.
Bantering with the boss
However Dowling mentioned that if there’s one a part of the gig he most loves, it’s attending to know his almost 105,000 workers.
“It’s unbelievably necessary,” mentioned Dowling, who takes employees out to month-to-month dinners, walked the COVID flooring of a Northwell hospital every day through the pandemic, and spends every Monday giving a two-hour orientation and Q&A to new hires, with a particular one for physicians.
“This isn’t performed that always by CEOs — though I can let you know that a variety of them at the moment are doing it as a result of they came upon I used to be doing it,” he mentioned.
Greater than only a heat welcome, the periods make hiring managers assume twice about who they’re onboarding — and are a simple strategy to spot out any newcomer with a awful perspective, the CEO mentioned.
“There have been events after I’ve requested workers at orientation to depart,” Dowling mentioned, though he added that almost all occasions it’s the other, with him loving the interplay, and a few new hires method him to say how they relate to his journey.
If there’s one factor candidates ought to know, it’s that their boss, who will give attention to management improvement as CEO emeritus within the fall, despises a poor perspective.
“Life is about alternative. It’s not about challenges. … Folks whine an excessive amount of, folks complain an excessive amount of. ‘Aw, this was a tough day’ — it’s presupposed to be onerous!” Dowling mentioned.
“Recover from it. Suck it up, and take care of it for God’s sake.”
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