Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, everyone, Welcome to CEOs. You should know I'm here
with doctor Braheim Ardolic our SVP Western Market for north
Well Staten Island University Hospital. Welcome, doctor Ardlic and Brahem.
I appreciate the opportunity to meet you this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh thanks for having me. It's really an honor.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
So we wanted to kind of get started and talk
to you a little bit about your journey and what's
inspired for you to pursue the career in medicine, particularly
the emergency care and cancer treatment as the early part
of your career.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah. So for me, the idea of taking care of
people and actually going to medical school, I don't really
know the first time I thought about it. I love
telling people that I'm actually not sure if I decided
to be a doctor or if my mom convinced me
that I decided to be a doctor. And I'm convinced
that she actually pulled the Jedi mind trick on me,
and actually I decided I was going to go to
(00:54):
medical school and she got what she wanted. Then going
into emergency medicine for me was a natural fit. I
love the idea of taking care of everyone that walked
in and you know, you know, being responsible for every
person that walked through the door, and also like the
kind of mystery of it. I love the idea that
you didn't know what was wrong with people when they
walked through and it was on you to help them
figure it out. So for me, that was kind of
(01:15):
a draw. And then frankly, my path I went to
running a department. I was running a department of emergency medicine,
and I thought that was my passion. I thought that
would probably be the last job that I ever had,
and it was really for me and probably will be
the thing that I would want them to write first
on my tombstone. Right. I developed a department of emergency medicine,
(01:37):
I started a training program with some amazing people, developed
a core group that took care of a population of
five hundred thousand. It was something I was very proud of.
And then I you know, was asked if I wanted
to help north Well run a hospital and something that
I never even thought of, frankly, and that kind of
got me into the next phase of my career. And
(01:58):
I was fortunate enough to come to north welles Staten
Island right at the point where we were looking to
bring the Northwell Cancer Institute to Staten Island and to
build something really special that would allow us to extend
our reach and to do comprehensive cancer care right in
the place that I was, that I grew up. So
(02:20):
that was a special thing for me.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So let me dig a little bit deeper there. And
it was just such a pleasure to read about the
advancements with the emergency department at north Well Staten Island
University Hospital which led to your new mission and new responsibilities.
But let's touch on what you kind of just started
to talk about. You've made significant impact on Staten Island's
(02:42):
healthcare landscape with Northwallles Staten Island University Hospital, specifically with
Florina Cancer Center. Braham, can you give me an overview
of the center It's mission for world class cancer care
and servicing the local community and sort of north Wells
vision and success in serving local communities overall.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, So Northwell looks at cancer care a little bit
differently in terms of how we want to present this
to our communities. Right, So, the Northwall Cancer Institute isn't
a place, it's an entity that will deliver the highest
quality care and get you the care that you need,
and do it in such a way that we could
(03:22):
actually do it close to your own community, so that
we can do it in your neighborhood. So when we
had the opportunity to take what was already you know,
a really great staff that we're taking really good care
of people, but we're doing it in a place that
was a little antiquated and was a little colloquial, and
we could actually put them into a brand new building
with real state of the art equipment, with real better operations,
(03:44):
and then actually also bring in the northwoll Cancer Institute
label and actually be able to put the kinds of
trials that people need right, the kinds of therapies that
people need, and do it all in one place. So
the wholemark of it really is you can get all
of your care done in a single location, and you
(04:04):
can do it in your own community. So if you're
a Staten Islander, you don't have to leave. You can
get your surgery there if you need one. If you
need chemotherapy, you'll get it done in the same location.
If you need more complex doctor visits, or you're still
in the phase where you're trying to figure out what's wrong,
it's also right there. If you need radiation therapy, it's
right there, So not having to worry about where it
(04:26):
is and being able to do it with a short
car ride to where you're being taken care of, as
opposed to having to worry about who's going to take
you into wherever you're going for care and how are
you going to navigate this. It's really a hallmark of
where we're trying to go and you are seeing it
now develop in multiple communities that Northwell's involved in. I
(04:47):
was just blessed to be involved in it as we
were bringing to Staten Island.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, and I want to expand more on that. And
I know you're close to Northwell Cancer Institute the Hub
and taking all the different vision and secret sauce of
the north Weld Health System and what you've done with
Florina Kansas Center. But Rahim tell me, you know you've
been described as an advocate for Staten Island and you
(05:12):
just talked quite a bit about servicing the community there.
But what makes the community so special to you personally?
What in the community is the connection that influences all
of your amazing work and healthcare.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So Staten Island's an amazing place. It's really the melting
pot of New York a generation later. Right. If you
want to know who's coming to Staten Island, all you
got to do is look back twenty years and see, Okay,
who was coming into New York City twenty years ago?
And you see this flow of people towards Staten Island.
And it's just this amazing place that is still a
(05:45):
little old school, still a little suburban, right, And you
don't feel like you're exactly in the hustle bustle of
New York City, and yet at the same time you've
got this amazing collection of individuals that want to be
there and will help each other. I love saying about
Staten Island that when you walk around, you really don't
realize that you're in a place that has five hundred
thousand people. You feel like you run into the same people.
(06:06):
You feel like you see the same people. I remember
walking out of a shift and going into a deli
to pick up some cold custom to take home for
the next day, and you're running into people that you've
taken care of, and you don't get that anonymity feel
that you get in a lot in some parts of
New York City. And yet you're still in what has
(06:27):
really continued to become more and more diverse, and it's
a beautiful place. That's great, that's great.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Let's talk a little bit more about you know, how
you balance responsibilities at the hospital with your passion for teaching.
And we know that you have an amazing staff and
certainly what you've done in the emergency department led to
your position today, which continues to teach healthcare professionals across
the north Well State Allan University Hospital. What do you
(06:55):
enjoy most about working with the next generation of healthcare professionals.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, for me, it's always been about the idea that
if I take care of one patient, I can really
help that patient. And if you think about it, over
the course of a career, one emergency physician sees around
one hundred thousand patients in the course of their career,
and that's how many people they're really helping, right. But
if I can help train five residents a year, and
(07:24):
I can do that for ten years, I can actually
impact a couple of million people. And if I can
show somebody how to do something, if I can help
them get a little bit better at something, I've always
really believed very strongly, and the compounding impact of that
and how many humans and lives that you can actually affect.
So for me, teaching and moving people further along their
(07:48):
career regardless of what you're doing, and I've kind of
finally come to the conclusion that, you know what, you
don't have to be just teaching doctors how to be
better doctors. If you can teach people how to be
better at running in a hospital, if you can teach
people how to be better at anything they do, the
number of people that you impact is exponential. Wow, that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
We're here with doctor berhem Ardolik, SVP, Western Market, Northwales,
Staten Island University Hospital. Thank you for joining us today
on CEOs. You should know I wanted to ask you
a question. You've led the hospital's response to some of
Staten Island's most challenging times, including crisis times like Hurricane
Sandy and Irene. Managing a staff, managing the hospital. How
(08:30):
do you stay calm under pressure and how did that
experience change or develop your leadership style? Impacting so many
residents on Staten Island and so many staff members during
that time those challenging times.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Gosh, you learn a lot during crisis, right, And I
think you really see the best of people during crisis,
and people really come together during that moment where we
have to make sure that we can get through something together.
So for me, the learning experienceience was how many people
will honestly try to help their fellow man in this
(09:05):
moment of my gosh, what are we going to do?
For me, some of the most vivid moments of going
through Superstorm Sandy was the guy who risked himself in
his truck to get his neighbor who was having an
active heart attack into the hospital despite the raising water.
So for me, the humanity is one of the biggest
(09:25):
lessons and planning. I can tell you that every year
I think we've gotten better at planning for future disasters
based upon what we continue to learn. And frankly, you
do get very good at all these different kinds of
situations because we live in a world where things do
(09:45):
go wrong, whether they're weather related, whether they're utility related.
But I used to think, why do I keep being
in these situations where I've got to go through these disasters?
And I frankly think that this is something that we
do have to get used to that we're going to
have these kinds of events, whether they're weathery're related otherwise,
and it's on all of us to better prepare to
(10:07):
make take care of our communities.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, and I think you see that in many different
categories and verticals of leadership and hard working frontline individuals,
like all the folks at Northwest Staten Island University Hospital.
I guess a follow up question to that would be
managing a hospital involves juggling. I can't even imagine how
many different priorities. But that said, you know, how do
you balance the needs of your staff, the needs of
(10:31):
the patients and the broader community while ensuring that the
top quality healthcare remains top priority.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, you know, probably a lot to unpacked there. You know,
it's interesting, I've actually come to the conclusion that those
things aren't that different, that they're all kind of the
same thing. I think that happy staff that like what
they're doing and that I actually believe in taking care
of humans leads to happy patients and actually gets us
to where we want to go there at the end
of the day, happy content staff that you're giving a
(10:59):
good to need to be matched up with good processes
that you believe in, and then appropriate spaces they can
actually work in, and you need all three. But after
a long time of thinking about this, I don't really
think that there's much a different differentiator between happy staff
and happy patients. I think one leads to another, and
if you can look at them into totality, I think
(11:21):
the great, great, great majority of people are going to
healthcare going because they really want to help other people,
and if you can put them into situations where you
give them that opportunity, they will rise to the occasion.
And I think that that's really one of the key
goals is to keep people content, keep them happy, give
them great work environments to work in, and they will
(11:42):
do the rest and they'll take care of the amazing
patients that come in.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
That's incredible something that you have for sure done with
North Wales Staten Island University Hospital and Brahim, we were
just chatting before we went into our CEOs. You should
know here, but your role is being expanded with the
Western Market Presidency to cover additional landscape. Is that going
(12:05):
to take away time from Northwallles Staten Island University Hospital.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Is it going to be.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Able to develop you as a leader to maybe see
new challenges and things that you might be able to
adapt to. North Welles Staten Island University Hospital.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah, listen, I think that growth is good and I
think I think change is good for everybody. I can
tell you that when I left emergency medicine and actually
went into a hospital role, doctor Nicole Burwald followed me,
and I really think that she grew and improved on
what I actually did. So as I look and pick
(12:37):
up some of these additional responsibilities, I think that that
creates opportunity for people to continue to grow their careers
and build stuff and also add new ideas yep, right,
and also kind of start to align and do really
great things that we can do across multiple venues. So
I always look at these kind of things as both
an opportunity for me to actually look at how every
(13:00):
thing is done and look to see where there's opportunities
and also opportunities for people to step up and actually
grow their careers. I've kind of come to the conclusion
that there's a said amount of time people should be
in a job, and once you've been in a job
for too long, it almost becomes too easy. And I
don't think that's healthy right, because I think that's when
you stop being creative. I think that's when you stop growing.
(13:20):
And for me, I think that you continue to look
for opportunities for people to grow, because when you do,
they will often surprise you with how many amazing things
they do. I love that.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
That's an amazing leadership response to that question, and it
sounds like the Northwell Cancer Institute's mission to providing local
community access to the best care continues and that will
be always top of your responsibility list for any of
the new landscape that you cover. You know, Braghaim, as
(13:53):
we wrap up here on CEOs, you should know, you know,
what's one thing you hope people will take away about
now Florina Cancer Center. It's work in the community and
maybe something we should know about the future Florina Cancer
Center for the Staten Island community.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I think the consistent Northwell message that you can get
world class care, and specifically in cancer in your own community,
and you can get that done in a comprehensive fashion
where you can get a world class surgeon, and you
can get a full spectrum of care regardless of what
you need, including access to clinical trials, and you can
(14:32):
get that done without having to commute two hours in
each direction. Is a big part of what the Northwell
message is across the board, and you're going to see
that in different neighborhoods and I'm blessed to have been
so involved in bringing that to Staten Island. But that's
a consistent message. You can get all of this stuff
done and get through this horrible diagnosis yep, right, and
(14:56):
do it in your own neighborhood. And I think for
the future, i'd give a broad message in that cancer
is no longer the terminal diagnosis that we used to
think of it, and that many of us still think
of it that way. We have done remarkable things to
get curates up in certain diagnoses. We've also done remarkable
(15:18):
things in some of these uncurable cancers where you can
actually extend life really significant time where you weren't able
to before. So I think one of the biggest messages
is we can give you all of those opportunities in
your own neighborhood, and you will continue to see Northwell
do that and expand to different communities as we're actually
(15:38):
doing this. This is just the most recent one. That's great.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Rahim tell me how the community can get involved more
with Florina Cancer Center, specifically in outreach efforts, donation causes, etc.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Well, there's a wonderful one that's occurring right now with
Elvis Durand and Alex Carr. There's an amazing opportunity during
November now to buy a mustache and really show your support.
All that money is going locally to the Florina Cancer Center,
and it's really a wonderful opportunity to support the women
and men that are actually taking care of your loved
(16:12):
ones every single day. What I would say to people is,
it's incredible how many generous people I meet. It's also
incredible how many people donate money to medical causes but
don't actually look at where that money is actually spent.
So I would encourage everyone to ask the question, when
you're donating money to a medical cause, how much of
those dollars are actually spent in your own community taking
(16:34):
care of people that you would like to take care of.
Because there are women and men right now that are
working really hard to take care of your children, your parents,
and everyone else, and we need to support those people
every single day and make sure that we can deliver
the highest quality of care as we actually go through.
So I want to thank Elvis and Alex for the
(16:56):
amazing work they're actually doing. And that's the most recent
example that we can give of something you can do
right now.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, Brahim, regarding the November Program with Elvis Durant and
Alex Carr, and you know how endearing they are to
north Well Staten Island University Hospital. Elvis has gone on
air and talked about the generous doctors and staff saving
Alex's life, the November program and buying the mustache to
learn more about that.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Do you have that website? Yeah, it's Northwell dot edu
backslash Elvis. It's a great, great program. We love them
for what they're actually doing and also just the way
they're doing it, just talking about caring about humans. It's
really an incredible thing. That's great.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Okay, folks, we are with doctor braheim Ardolik Our SVP
Western Market President, Northwales Staten Island University Hospital on CEOs.
You should know, Brahim. It's been a pleasure and I
do want to just offer one more question. You know,
we were talking about being a dad and being a leader.
Is there anything that you want to give advice to
(17:59):
maybe some of our young listeners out there aspiring to
be doctors, aspiring to be leaders within their community, something
that maybe you've developed as your own wisdom or insight
for talking to the leaders of tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, I think what I would say to people is
find your passion. Don't chase after something because you think
it's what other people want you to do, or it
seems like a good idea, or it seems prestigious. If
you truly can see yourself taking care of people and
you're willing to put the work in and you're willing
to do the things that are necessary, go for it.
Follow your heart, but do it in a way where
(18:34):
you don't lose your passion and you're doing things for
the right reason. And if you do, even if you
don't get exactly what you thought, you will often get
exactly what you need to be a good result. Unless
your mom forces you to become a doctor. Hey, and
it worked out great. I thank you now for it
all the time. But I am convinced that she convinced me.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yeah, I think that's excellent advice, again coming from yourself
being a leader in the healthcare industry and an amazing family.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Manager at home.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
So I'd like to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Thank you so much,
Hello, everyone, Welcome to CEOs. You should know I'm here
with doctor Braheim Ardolic our SVP Western Market for north
Well Staten Island University Hospital. Welcome, doctor Ardlic and Brahem.
I appreciate the opportunity to meet you this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh thanks for having me. It's really an honor.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
So we wanted to kind of get started and talk
to you a little bit about your journey and what's
inspired for you to pursue the career in medicine, particularly
the emergency care and cancer treatment as the early part
of your career.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah. So for me, the idea of taking care of
people and actually going to medical school, I don't really
know the first time I thought about it. I love
telling people that I'm actually not sure if I decided
to be a doctor or if my mom convinced me
that I decided to be a doctor. And I'm convinced
that she actually pulled the Jedi mind trick on me,
and actually I decided I was going to go to
(00:54):
medical school and she got what she wanted. Then going
into emergency medicine for me was a natural fit. I
love the idea of taking care of everyone that walked
in and you know, you know, being responsible for every
person that walked through the door, and also like the
kind of mystery of it. I love the idea that
you didn't know what was wrong with people when they
walked through and it was on you to help them
figure it out. So for me, that was kind of
(01:15):
a draw. And then frankly, my path I went to
running a department. I was running a department of emergency medicine,
and I thought that was my passion. I thought that
would probably be the last job that I ever had,
and it was really for me and probably will be
the thing that I would want them to write first
on my tombstone. Right. I developed a department of emergency medicine,
(01:37):
I started a training program with some amazing people, developed
a core group that took care of a population of
five hundred thousand. It was something I was very proud of.
And then I you know, was asked if I wanted
to help north Well run a hospital and something that
I never even thought of, frankly, and that kind of
got me into the next phase of my career. And
(01:58):
I was fortunate enough to come to north welles Staten
Island right at the point where we were looking to
bring the Northwell Cancer Institute to Staten Island and to
build something really special that would allow us to extend
our reach and to do comprehensive cancer care right in
the place that I was, that I grew up. So
(02:20):
that was a special thing for me.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So let me dig a little bit deeper there. And
it was just such a pleasure to read about the
advancements with the emergency department at north Well Staten Island
University Hospital which led to your new mission and new responsibilities.
But let's touch on what you kind of just started
to talk about. You've made significant impact on Staten Island's
(02:42):
healthcare landscape with Northwallles Staten Island University Hospital, specifically with
Florina Cancer Center. Braham, can you give me an overview
of the center It's mission for world class cancer care
and servicing the local community and sort of north Wells
vision and success in serving local communities overall.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, So Northwell looks at cancer care a little bit
differently in terms of how we want to present this
to our communities. Right, So, the Northwall Cancer Institute isn't
a place, it's an entity that will deliver the highest
quality care and get you the care that you need,
and do it in such a way that we could
(03:22):
actually do it close to your own community, so that
we can do it in your neighborhood. So when we
had the opportunity to take what was already you know,
a really great staff that we're taking really good care
of people, but we're doing it in a place that
was a little antiquated and was a little colloquial, and
we could actually put them into a brand new building
with real state of the art equipment, with real better operations,
(03:44):
and then actually also bring in the northwoll Cancer Institute
label and actually be able to put the kinds of
trials that people need right, the kinds of therapies that
people need, and do it all in one place. So
the wholemark of it really is you can get all
of your care done in a single location, and you
(04:04):
can do it in your own community. So if you're
a Staten Islander, you don't have to leave. You can
get your surgery there if you need one. If you
need chemotherapy, you'll get it done in the same location.
If you need more complex doctor visits, or you're still
in the phase where you're trying to figure out what's wrong,
it's also right there. If you need radiation therapy, it's
right there, So not having to worry about where it
(04:26):
is and being able to do it with a short
car ride to where you're being taken care of, as
opposed to having to worry about who's going to take
you into wherever you're going for care and how are
you going to navigate this. It's really a hallmark of
where we're trying to go and you are seeing it
now develop in multiple communities that Northwell's involved in. I
(04:47):
was just blessed to be involved in it as we
were bringing to Staten Island.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, and I want to expand more on that. And
I know you're close to Northwell Cancer Institute the Hub
and taking all the different vision and secret sauce of
the north Weld Health System and what you've done with
Florina Kansas Center. But Rahim tell me, you know you've
been described as an advocate for Staten Island and you
(05:12):
just talked quite a bit about servicing the community there.
But what makes the community so special to you personally?
What in the community is the connection that influences all
of your amazing work and healthcare.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So Staten Island's an amazing place. It's really the melting
pot of New York a generation later. Right. If you
want to know who's coming to Staten Island, all you
got to do is look back twenty years and see, Okay,
who was coming into New York City twenty years ago?
And you see this flow of people towards Staten Island.
And it's just this amazing place that is still a
(05:45):
little old school, still a little suburban, right, And you
don't feel like you're exactly in the hustle bustle of
New York City, and yet at the same time you've
got this amazing collection of individuals that want to be
there and will help each other. I love saying about
Staten Island that when you walk around, you really don't
realize that you're in a place that has five hundred
thousand people. You feel like you run into the same people.
(06:06):
You feel like you see the same people. I remember
walking out of a shift and going into a deli
to pick up some cold custom to take home for
the next day, and you're running into people that you've
taken care of, and you don't get that anonymity feel
that you get in a lot in some parts of
New York City. And yet you're still in what has
(06:27):
really continued to become more and more diverse, and it's
a beautiful place. That's great, that's great.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Let's talk a little bit more about you know, how
you balance responsibilities at the hospital with your passion for teaching.
And we know that you have an amazing staff and
certainly what you've done in the emergency department led to
your position today, which continues to teach healthcare professionals across
the north Well State Allan University Hospital. What do you
(06:55):
enjoy most about working with the next generation of healthcare professionals.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, for me, it's always been about the idea that
if I take care of one patient, I can really
help that patient. And if you think about it, over
the course of a career, one emergency physician sees around
one hundred thousand patients in the course of their career,
and that's how many people they're really helping, right. But
if I can help train five residents a year, and
(07:24):
I can do that for ten years, I can actually
impact a couple of million people. And if I can
show somebody how to do something, if I can help
them get a little bit better at something, I've always
really believed very strongly, and the compounding impact of that
and how many humans and lives that you can actually affect.
So for me, teaching and moving people further along their
(07:48):
career regardless of what you're doing, and I've kind of
finally come to the conclusion that, you know what, you
don't have to be just teaching doctors how to be
better doctors. If you can teach people how to be
better at running in a hospital, if you can teach
people how to be better at anything they do, the
number of people that you impact is exponential. Wow, that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
We're here with doctor berhem Ardolik, SVP, Western Market, Northwales,
Staten Island University Hospital. Thank you for joining us today
on CEOs. You should know I wanted to ask you
a question. You've led the hospital's response to some of
Staten Island's most challenging times, including crisis times like Hurricane
Sandy and Irene. Managing a staff, managing the hospital. How
(08:30):
do you stay calm under pressure and how did that
experience change or develop your leadership style? Impacting so many
residents on Staten Island and so many staff members during
that time those challenging times.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Gosh, you learn a lot during crisis, right, And I
think you really see the best of people during crisis,
and people really come together during that moment where we
have to make sure that we can get through something together.
So for me, the learning experienceience was how many people
will honestly try to help their fellow man in this
(09:05):
moment of my gosh, what are we going to do?
For me, some of the most vivid moments of going
through Superstorm Sandy was the guy who risked himself in
his truck to get his neighbor who was having an
active heart attack into the hospital despite the raising water.
So for me, the humanity is one of the biggest
(09:25):
lessons and planning. I can tell you that every year
I think we've gotten better at planning for future disasters
based upon what we continue to learn. And frankly, you
do get very good at all these different kinds of
situations because we live in a world where things do
(09:45):
go wrong, whether they're weather related, whether they're utility related.
But I used to think, why do I keep being
in these situations where I've got to go through these disasters?
And I frankly think that this is something that we
do have to get used to that we're going to
have these kinds of events, whether they're weathery're related otherwise,
and it's on all of us to better prepare to
(10:07):
make take care of our communities.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, and I think you see that in many different
categories and verticals of leadership and hard working frontline individuals,
like all the folks at Northwest Staten Island University Hospital.
I guess a follow up question to that would be
managing a hospital involves juggling. I can't even imagine how
many different priorities. But that said, you know, how do
you balance the needs of your staff, the needs of
(10:31):
the patients and the broader community while ensuring that the
top quality healthcare remains top priority.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, you know, probably a lot to unpacked there. You know,
it's interesting, I've actually come to the conclusion that those
things aren't that different, that they're all kind of the
same thing. I think that happy staff that like what
they're doing and that I actually believe in taking care
of humans leads to happy patients and actually gets us
to where we want to go there at the end
of the day, happy content staff that you're giving a
(10:59):
good to need to be matched up with good processes
that you believe in, and then appropriate spaces they can
actually work in, and you need all three. But after
a long time of thinking about this, I don't really
think that there's much a different differentiator between happy staff
and happy patients. I think one leads to another, and
if you can look at them into totality, I think
(11:21):
the great, great, great majority of people are going to
healthcare going because they really want to help other people,
and if you can put them into situations where you
give them that opportunity, they will rise to the occasion.
And I think that that's really one of the key
goals is to keep people content, keep them happy, give
them great work environments to work in, and they will
(11:42):
do the rest and they'll take care of the amazing
patients that come in.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
That's incredible something that you have for sure done with
North Wales Staten Island University Hospital and Brahim, we were
just chatting before we went into our CEOs. You should
know here, but your role is being expanded with the
Western Market Presidency to cover additional landscape. Is that going
(12:05):
to take away time from Northwallles Staten Island University Hospital.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Is it going to be.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Able to develop you as a leader to maybe see
new challenges and things that you might be able to
adapt to. North Welles Staten Island University Hospital.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah, listen, I think that growth is good and I
think I think change is good for everybody. I can
tell you that when I left emergency medicine and actually
went into a hospital role, doctor Nicole Burwald followed me,
and I really think that she grew and improved on
what I actually did. So as I look and pick
(12:37):
up some of these additional responsibilities, I think that that
creates opportunity for people to continue to grow their careers
and build stuff and also add new ideas yep, right,
and also kind of start to align and do really
great things that we can do across multiple venues. So
I always look at these kind of things as both
an opportunity for me to actually look at how every
(13:00):
thing is done and look to see where there's opportunities
and also opportunities for people to step up and actually
grow their careers. I've kind of come to the conclusion
that there's a said amount of time people should be
in a job, and once you've been in a job
for too long, it almost becomes too easy. And I
don't think that's healthy right, because I think that's when
you stop being creative. I think that's when you stop growing.
(13:20):
And for me, I think that you continue to look
for opportunities for people to grow, because when you do,
they will often surprise you with how many amazing things
they do. I love that.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
That's an amazing leadership response to that question, and it
sounds like the Northwell Cancer Institute's mission to providing local
community access to the best care continues and that will
be always top of your responsibility list for any of
the new landscape that you cover. You know, Braghaim, as
(13:53):
we wrap up here on CEOs, you should know, you know,
what's one thing you hope people will take away about
now Florina Cancer Center. It's work in the community and
maybe something we should know about the future Florina Cancer
Center for the Staten Island community.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I think the consistent Northwell message that you can get
world class care, and specifically in cancer in your own community,
and you can get that done in a comprehensive fashion
where you can get a world class surgeon, and you
can get a full spectrum of care regardless of what
you need, including access to clinical trials, and you can
(14:32):
get that done without having to commute two hours in
each direction. Is a big part of what the Northwell
message is across the board, and you're going to see
that in different neighborhoods and I'm blessed to have been
so involved in bringing that to Staten Island. But that's
a consistent message. You can get all of this stuff
done and get through this horrible diagnosis yep, right, and
(14:56):
do it in your own neighborhood. And I think for
the future, i'd give a broad message in that cancer
is no longer the terminal diagnosis that we used to
think of it, and that many of us still think
of it that way. We have done remarkable things to
get curates up in certain diagnoses. We've also done remarkable
(15:18):
things in some of these uncurable cancers where you can
actually extend life really significant time where you weren't able
to before. So I think one of the biggest messages
is we can give you all of those opportunities in
your own neighborhood, and you will continue to see Northwell
do that and expand to different communities as we're actually
(15:38):
doing this. This is just the most recent one. That's great.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Rahim tell me how the community can get involved more
with Florina Cancer Center, specifically in outreach efforts, donation causes, etc.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Well, there's a wonderful one that's occurring right now with
Elvis Durand and Alex Carr. There's an amazing opportunity during
November now to buy a mustache and really show your support.
All that money is going locally to the Florina Cancer Center,
and it's really a wonderful opportunity to support the women
and men that are actually taking care of your loved
(16:12):
ones every single day. What I would say to people is,
it's incredible how many generous people I meet. It's also
incredible how many people donate money to medical causes but
don't actually look at where that money is actually spent.
So I would encourage everyone to ask the question, when
you're donating money to a medical cause, how much of
those dollars are actually spent in your own community taking
(16:34):
care of people that you would like to take care of.
Because there are women and men right now that are
working really hard to take care of your children, your parents,
and everyone else, and we need to support those people
every single day and make sure that we can deliver
the highest quality of care as we actually go through.
So I want to thank Elvis and Alex for the
(16:56):
amazing work they're actually doing. And that's the most recent
example that we can give of something you can do
right now.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, Brahim, regarding the November Program with Elvis Durant and
Alex Carr, and you know how endearing they are to
north Well Staten Island University Hospital. Elvis has gone on
air and talked about the generous doctors and staff saving
Alex's life, the November program and buying the mustache to
learn more about that.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Do you have that website? Yeah, it's Northwell dot edu
backslash Elvis. It's a great, great program. We love them
for what they're actually doing and also just the way
they're doing it, just talking about caring about humans. It's
really an incredible thing. That's great.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Okay, folks, we are with doctor braheim Ardolik Our SVP
Western Market President, Northwales Staten Island University Hospital on CEOs.
You should know, Brahim. It's been a pleasure and I
do want to just offer one more question. You know,
we were talking about being a dad and being a leader.
Is there anything that you want to give advice to
(17:59):
maybe some of our young listeners out there aspiring to
be doctors, aspiring to be leaders within their community, something
that maybe you've developed as your own wisdom or insight
for talking to the leaders of tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, I think what I would say to people is
find your passion. Don't chase after something because you think
it's what other people want you to do, or it
seems like a good idea, or it seems prestigious. If
you truly can see yourself taking care of people and
you're willing to put the work in and you're willing
to do the things that are necessary, go for it.
Follow your heart, but do it in a way where
(18:34):
you don't lose your passion and you're doing things for
the right reason. And if you do, even if you
don't get exactly what you thought, you will often get
exactly what you need to be a good result. Unless
your mom forces you to become a doctor. Hey, and
it worked out great. I thank you now for it
all the time. But I am convinced that she convinced me.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yeah, I think that's excellent advice, again coming from yourself
being a leader in the healthcare industry and an amazing family.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Manager at home.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
So I'd like to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Thank you so much,
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Monster: BTK
'Monster: BTK', the newest installment in the 'Monster' franchise, reveals the true story of the Wichita, Kansas serial killer who murdered at least 10 people between 1974 and 1991. Known by the moniker, BTK – Bind Torture Kill, his notoriety was bolstered by the taunting letters he sent to police, and the chilling phone calls he made to media outlets. BTK's identity was finally revealed in 2005 to the shock of his family, his community, and the world. He was the serial killer next door. From Tenderfoot TV & iHeartPodcasts, this is 'Monster: BTK'.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.