Safyer Tapped To Lead Montefiore Medical Center
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Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx has named Dr. Steven Safyer president and chief medical officer following a months-long search to replace the hospital’s longtime chief executive.
The appointment, announced yesterday, ends a national search that began in March when Dr. Spencer Foreman announced his intention to step down after nearly 22 years at the helm. Dr. Safyer, 58, a veteran Montefiore physician and hospital executive, will assume the position on January 7. In an interview yesterday, Dr. Safyer said a central focus of his tenure would be to further integrate Montefiore with its associated medical school, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “We’re not necessarily co-identified in the public’s mind,” he said. He said he envisions an “on the ground” integration of medical research and patient care that would attract doctors and patients to Montefiore.
Since 1998, Dr. Safyer has served as the hospital’s senior vice president and chief medical officer. In that capacity, he has directed all of the hospital’s clinical operations. A board-certified physician, Dr. Safyer is also a professor of medicine and a professor of epidemiology and population health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he earned his medical degree.
“Dr. Safyer is the best person to lead Montefiore into the future, particularly because he has played such a key role in making Montefiore the successful, innovative health system it is today,” the chairman of the board of trustees, David Tanner, said in a statement. Yesterday, Dr. Safyer said he hopes to build on the success of Dr. Foreman, who was appointed in 1986 at a time when the Bronx facility faced a crisis in management and severe financial distress.
Today, the 1,122-bed hospital is the only academic medical center in the Bronx. It logs more than 2.5 million ambulatory care visits each year, in addition to treating 250,000 emergency room patients annually. Montefiore has an annual operating budget of $2.2 billion, with a projected 1.5% to 2% profit margin, hospital officials said.
