Hospital / Health Care
Alan Schechter Named COO of SBUH; Executive Has Vast Experience in Healthcare Operations

STONY BROOK, N.Y., January 27, 2006 – Alan Schechter, one of the most respected hospital administrators in the region, today was named Chief Operating Officer of Stony Brook University Hospital, the only tertiary hospital in Suffolk County. The announcement was made by Stony Brook University Hospital Chief Executive Officer, John S. T. Gallagher.

Schechter joins Stony Brook after more than 30 years of experience as a health care administrator on Long Island, including extensive experience working with health care systems. His stellar rise began when Gallagher tapped him as Controller for North Shore University Hospital in 1972, where he worked for five years. After three years as Director of Fiscal Services and Chief Financial Officer at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital from 1977 to 1980, Schechter returned to North Shore as a Vice President from 1980 to 1993 and was promoted to Senior Vice President of System Services, working alongside Gallagher during the conception and implementation of building the North Shore LIJ Healthcare System. In 1997, he was appointed Executive Vice President at Lutheran Medical Center Health System in Brooklyn, and in 2003 he became Executive Vice President and COO of Central Suffolk Hospital in Riverhead.

Schechter's experience will assist Gallagher in supervising the completion of the hospital's Major Modernization project, the first major refurbishment of the hospital since it opened in 1980. The project includes an expanded and modernized Emergency Department, Surgical Expansion, a new Cancer and Imaging Center scheduled to open in 2006, and the recently completed Heart Center.

“Alan’s experience and vision operating health care systems is an invaluable asset to Stony Brook right now,” Gallagher said. “He is one of only a few seasoned administrators with experience in building health care systems, and while at Central Suffolk he was key to the process that helped build the first Stony Brook University Hospital Alliance agreement. I’m very pleased that he has agreed to join Stony Brook.”

Schechter said he has been concerned about the out migration of patients in Suffolk County into Nassau and Manhattan. He envisions the Stony Brook University Hospital Alliance as an excellent opportunity to build a health care system in Suffolk County which will provide more residents access to Stony Brook's tertiary services, such as heart and cancer.

“With the Major Modernization project ongoing, and under the leadership of Richard N. Fine, M.D., Dean of the School of Medicine, and Jack Gallagher, Stony Brook is poised for the next plateau and can continue to offer the residents of Suffolk County the quality health care they deserve so they don’t have to leave their own community,” said Schechter.

Stony Brook University Hospital and the School of Medicine comprise Long Island’s only academic medical center. The 504-bed hospital offers advanced services including the only Regional Perinatal Center in Suffolk County, the Heart Center (which performs the only open-heart surgery in Suffolk County), the Stony Brook University Cancer Center, and Long Island’s only kidney transplantation center. It also is the site of the nation’s first Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center. Other facilities unique to Suffolk County include a Level 1 Trauma Center, Burn Center, and the Cody Center for Autism.

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