H E A LT H C A R E
STEPHEN ZIENIEWICZ, PRESIDENT AND CEO
OF SAINT BARNABAS MEDICAL CENTER
36
MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE BACK TO SCHOOL 2016
A rendering of the Cooperman Family Pavilion
ZIENIEWICZ PHOTO AND RENDERING: COURTESY OF SAINT BARNABAS MEDICAL CENTER
W
ith a firefighter father and a mother
and two sisters in nursing, Stephen
Zieniewicz grew up surrounded by
loved ones who worked in the
service of others. An early job in
Manhasset’s North Shore Hospital emergency room
convinced him to take a similar route, and pursue a
career in health care administration. He held a number of high-level positions at hospitals nationwide
before being named President and CEO of Saint
Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston a year ago.
“Population health management is something we’ve
all been working on,” he says. “How do we better
manage populations that might be diabetic – that is,
do a better job of engaging patients to be healthy
before they get sick? We take care of patients with a
continuum of care after an acute episode; how do we
continue to manage them post-discharge, with education, support, home care and other services? That’s
been the big focus, and will continue to be. Just like
Wayne Gretzky was touted for skating towards where
the puck is going, we have to be thinking several
steps ahead, and go where health care is headed.”
Knowing patients’ genetics as well as their familial
histories enables health care providers to help them
stay well, he says. A grant from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention has allowed physicians from the center’s Asian Health Initiative, led by
Dr. Su Wang, to offer free screenings for hepatitis B,
to which a large portion of the Asian population is at
risk; sometimes this is done in the community with a
phlebotomist. The Lung Cancer Institute at Saint
Barnabas also offers free low-dose CT lung scans for
high-risk patients with histories of smoking, in the
hopes that tumors can be detected in their early
stages, when they’re more treatable.
Due to Saint Barnabas’ position as a major acute
care facility in the RWJBarnabas Health System, the
network’s community hospitals serve as “portals of
entry,” says Zieniewicz. “People from Lakewood,
New Jersey, can be flown here, because we’re a
comprehensive stroke and neurological center. If a
cardiologist in Toms River tells her patient that he
needs a transcatheter aortic valve replacement, he
can elect to have it done here.”
Looking to its own future, the medical center is not
only expanding the population it serves, but its physical
plant as well. The Cooperman Family Pavilion, slated
for completion in August 2017, will house an
expanded state-of-the-art neonatal intensive care unit,
says Zieniewicz. “The expansion will also allow us to
move to all private rooms throughout the center. This
will be helpful from an infection control point of
view, and patient stays will be more restful.” ■