Bio
When Dr. Theodore G. Long joined NYC Health + Hospitals in 2018, he stepped into a system under extraordinary pressure. The nation’s largest municipal healthcare system was carrying a $1.8 billion structural deficit, and patients seeking primary care often faced wait times of several months. For many New Yorkers, especially those already vulnerable, those delays were more than an inconvenience. Dr. Long understood that fixing the problem required more than incremental change. With training from Yale, where he earned a Master of Health Science, and experience leading quality improvement initiatives at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, he brought a sharp operational mindset to one of the city’s most complex public systems. As Senior Vice President for Ambulatory Care and Population Health, he led a redesign of the ambulatory care network and launched NYC Care, opening the door to healthcare access for uninsured New Yorkers on an unprecedented scale. The results were clear. Wait times for new appointments dropped by 50 percent, NYC Care delivered more than one million primary care appointments, and the system eliminated its $1.8 billion structural deficit. The stronger infrastructure he built also positioned the city to respond quickly in crisis, making possible the rapid launch of the Covid-19 Test & Trace Corps and the nation’s first Arrival Center to support asylum seekers. Even while leading at this scale, Dr. Long continues to see patients, reflecting his belief that public healthcare leadership must stay connected to the people it serves. Through his leadership, Dr. Long has expanded access to high-quality healthcare for millions of New Yorkers, including more than 178,000 asylum seekers.
