42 JUNE 23 – JUNE 29, 2017 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
Susan Browning brought back to her roots
SECRETS
vschneps@gmail.com
Having lived in Woodside for
30 years, and then moving to
Long Island a er marrying,
Susan Browning has returned to her
roots, leading Northwell Health’s
newly renamed Long Island Jewish
Forest Hills hospital. And the “system”
has invested millions to renovate and
add new services to the hospital now
under her leadership.
Having a brilliant college career at
Barnard where she earned a BS and
then getting her Master’s Degree from
the prestigious Columbia University
Mailman School of Public Health, she
concentrated on health policy and
management while working full time
at Methodist Hospital in the Park
Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn and
her passion for hospital administration
was born, as well as her aspiration
to lead a hospital as executive director.
Having practiced her cra in Brooklyn,
Browning held several leadership
roles at Northwell Health, including
at Staten Island University Hospital
which was in the process of realigning
services and programs.
As a Senior Vice President, she managed
the integration and operation of
the multiple practices at the major
hospital on Staten Island that is growing
in infl uence and serves almost half
a million people. She has become an
expert on integrating specialists with
current sta and has been the administrative
Vice President of Northwell
Health’s neurosurgery, neurology,
ENT, head/neck and ophthalmology
services, working to further expand
programs at Manhattan Eye, Ear and
Throat Hospital, North Shore University
Hospital, and Huntington Hospital,
to name a few.
Wisely, Northwell fi nally made her
goal to lead a hospital as executive
director come to fruition, turning to
her to lead the expanding LIJ forest
Hills hospital in a diverse borough of
over 2.2 million people.
Browning has cut several ribbons,
opening new services at the hospital,
and expects to expand the ER in the
near future. She has created a stateof
the-art imaging center. She can call
on her sta on site to read X-rays but
now thanks to a sophisticated electronic
system, they can be read by the
over 150 radiologists in the Northwell
system.
When I met with her recently in
her tenth fl oor o ce overlooking the
skyline of Queens and Manhattan, her
eyes sparkled as she spoke about the
major renovations going on, creating
10 cutting-edge postpartum maternity
rooms.
“We will be able to o er private
rooms and reduce our three-bed
rooms to two persons with lots of
privacy,” she explained. “And as a celebration
for the new parents, we will
even o er catered meals from local
restaurants,” she continued.
Susan Browning spoke with pride
in her voice when discussing the
additional new doctors serving the
hospital’s patients as well as multiple
community sites like the one at
95-25 Queens Blvd. “We can access
Northwell’s wealth of top doctors in
every category of health needs,” she
said. “And I’m adding world-class
trained specialists. We want to make
LIJ Forest Hills a destination hospital
and with the rapid growth of the
community, it’s my challenge to grow
the sta and the hospital. We might
have to expand the footprint too to
meet the need and demand for our
services.”
With her parents still living in
Woodside, she said with a smile, “I
get fan letters with thanks from my
parents’ neighbors. They know how
much I care about giving them stateof
the-art medical care.”
With an eye on each day to deliver
the fi nest medical care, Susan Browning
also, has an eye on the future and
the needs of the diverse communities
she serves. Welcome back home. She’s
made her parents proud and the community,
too.
VICTORIA’S
Victoria
SCHNEPSYUNIS
tweet me @vschneps
Susan Browning, executive director of Long Island Jewish
Forest Hills Northwell Health