STONY BROOK, NY, October 18, 2005—Bruce Schroffel, who launched Stony Brook University Hospital’s $300 million Major Modernization Plan, expanded the hospital’s services to residents of the East End, and presided over a period of unprecedented growth in programs and construction, is leaving his position as Director and CEO, he announced today. Schroffel will take over in January as President and CEO of the University of Colorado Hospital in Denver.
“Stony Brook University Hospital is a terrific institution and I feel privileged to have been a part of its impressive legacy,” Schroffel said. “I want to thank the physicians, nurses, and staff who are the keys to the hospital’s stature locally, regionally, and nationally. I also want to express my gratitude to University President Shirley Strum Kenny for providing me with the opportunity to come to Stony Brook. It has been a truly wonderful experience.”
Schroffel was named to head the hospital in February, 2001 and immediately began to transform Suffolk’s only tertiary hospital to meet the demands of an aging population by recruiting leading physicians in cancer, heart disease, and orthopedics. The Major Modernization Plan—the first extensive renovation of the plant since the hospital opened in 1980—has included the construction of a new Heart Center, an expanded and modernized emergency room, and a new Cancer and Imaging Center, which will open in 2006.
Following legislation introduced by State Senator Kenneth LaValle to allow a SUNY hospital to forge alliances with community hospitals, Schroffel last year established the University Healthcare Alliance with Central Suffolk Hospital in Riverhead. As part of the agreement, Stony Brook doctors operate the emergency room at Central Suffolk and will also staff a planned new cardiac catheterization lab. The alliance will soon include Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport.
“Stony Brook University Hospital is nationally recognized as an institution where cutting-edge techniques are used to save lives,” Kenny said. “Bruce has been a greatly respected colleague, who has made formidable progress in transforming Stony Brook University Hospital to its present stature. He has done an extraordinary job, and we will miss him.”
Over the past year, the hospital has received national acclaim for a series of life-saving surgeries. In August, doctors delivered premature triplets so they could immediately repair an aortic dissection on the mother; in February, surgeons re-attached the hands of a man injured in an industrial accident—believed to be the first simultaneous re-attachment in New York State history—and the same month repaired the skull of a toddler accidentally struck by the family car.
Stony Brook University Hospital is Suffolk County’s only tertiary academic medical center, where leading medical research is conducted. The 504-bed institution is celebrating its 25th Anniversary. Its advanced services include the only Regional Perinatal Center in Suffolk County, the Heart Center (which performs the only open-heart surgery in Suffolk County), the Long Island Cancer Center, and Long Island’s only kidney transplantation center. It also is the site of the nation’s only Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center. Other facilities unique to Suffolk County include a Level 1 Trauma Center, Burn Center, Comprehensive Multiple Sclerosis Center, Cystic Fibrosis Center, state-designated AIDS Center for adults and children, and the Cody Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities.
The University of Colorado Hospital is the Rocky Mountain region’s leading tertiary care and referral center. Located in Denver and Aurora, CO, the hospital is part of the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, in the University of Colorado system.
“This represents a unique opportunity for me,” Schroffel said. “It is a brand new hospital and a brand new health science campus. I believe it is an institution that is poised for greatness. If you look at the top 10 hospitals in the country, they’re not great because they’re great independently. They’re great because of the relationship with a great school.”
Prior to joining Stony Brook, Schroffel was Senior Vice President/Chief Executive Officer of the San Francisco campus of the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF)/Stanford Health Care, where he was responsible for one of the largest university hospitals in the country and a community teaching hospital with 769 beds, a $500 million budget, and 4,000 employees.
