Eric Wei, MD, MBA Appointed CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue

Eric Wei, MD, MBA Appointed CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue

After 30 years of service at NYC Health + Hospitals, Bill Hicks will retire as CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue

Sep 30, 2024

NYC Health + Hospitals today announced that William Hicks, MS, RT, DHL (Hon), will step down as Chief Executive Officer of NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue after 11 years leading the hospital and 30 years of service to the health system. Eric Wei, MD, MBA has been appointed as CEO of Bellevue, effective January 6, 2025. Bellevue Hospital is the biggest acute care facility in the nation's largest municipal health system.

"It has been a great privilege to lead such a stellar team of dedicated staff, facing challenges and enjoying successes at the innovative and historic Bellevue Hospital," said William Hicks, MS, RT, DHL (Hon), Chief Executive Officer of NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. "From being a port in the storm during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing tests, vaccines, comfort and exemplary medical care, to expanding inpatient and outpatient services to meet community needs, to increasing patient satisfaction scores, we've done it all as a team. I am grateful for having the opportunity to bring transformational change to Bellevue Hospital, increasing access to care and services for all New Yorkers, and contributing to the incredible legacy of Bellevue Hospital."

"Bellevue Hospital CEO Bill Hicks has been an extraordinary leader, and it's an honor to follow his footsteps as the next CEO of America's oldest public hospital," said Eric Wei, MD, MBA, Senior Vice President for Quality and Safety at NYC Health + Hospitals. "Through the transition and in January, I look forward to working with all the Bellevue Hospital teams as we continue to deliver high-quality care to those who need it most."

Mr. Hicks has been with NYC Health + Hospitals for 30 years and joined Bellevue Hospital in 2013 as Chief Operating Officer. He led the hospital during the once-in-a-century Covid-19 pandemic, when the hospital provided critical care for Covid patients from across the city and served as a test and vaccine hub for New Yorkers. During this time the hospital expedited the launch of its extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program to treat Covid patients, an advanced therapy involving a life support machine that temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs when a patient's own organs are too sick or weak to work properly. Additionally, the Bellevue Hospital team initiated another lifesaving program, transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, to treat patients with heart valve failure.

Mr. Hicks oversaw the expansion of in-patient capacity at the hospital to meet community needs, going from a pre-Covid average daily census of 565 to 762 today, with a recent peak of 841. The hospital is the only Level 1 Adult Trauma Center south of 68^th Street in Manhattan, and during Mr. Hicks' tenure, it earned certification as a Level 2 Pediatric Trauma Center. Mr. Hicks, who began his healthcare career as a Radiographer, recently initiated a Tuition Reimbursement Program that has successfully recruited four graduates from the Bellevue School of Radiologic Technology to join the hospital staff.

As Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Hicks managed the recovery of the hospital's physical plant and clinical services after Hurricane Sandy. During the Ebola outbreak of 2014, he was responsible for the development of the team and protocols that led to the successful treatment of New York's only confirmed Ebola patient. Mr. Hicks is a founding contributing member of the National Ebola Treatment and Education Center (NETEC) and played a key role in the designation of NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue as a Region II Ebola and Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC) in June of 2015. The hospital will hold an event to mark the 10^th anniversary of the 2014 Ebola emergency and response in October.

Mr. Hicks has worked 46 years in healthcare, and 30 of those years have been spent at NYC Health + Hospitals. He was a Radiographer at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County from 1978 to 1980 and Radiology Administrator at NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens from 1996 to 2000. Mr. Hicks served from 2000 to 2010 at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn in various positions culminating in Deputy Executive Director/Chief Innovation Officer. From 2010 to 2013 he served as Deputy Executive Director/Chief Operating Officer at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx. He worked for 16 years in the private health care sector.

Dr. Wei currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer for NYC Health + Hospitals. He is also a practicing Emergency Medicine physician who rotates through all 11 Emergency Departments in the system. Since joining NYC Health + Hospitals in 2018, he has overseen the creation of Helping Healers Heal (H3), the health system's peer support program to address healthcare provider trauma, burnout, and compassion fatigue. H3 was expanded during the Covid-19 pandemic and has served thousands of employees. During his tenure, Dr. Wei launched the Clinical Leadership Fellowship at NYC Health + Hospitals to develop the next generation of healthcare leaders and continues to serve as the fellowship's director. He created a formal Arts in Medicine department to oversee the health system's robust art collection of over 7,000 works and develop arts and wellness programming for staff, patients, and visitors. In addition, Dr. Wei was one of three editors of a new textbook about the Covid-19 response, written by nearly 100 health system staff and published earlier this year and spoke recently about his experience leading the system's response in an interview on WNYC's All Things Considered. Dr. Wei served as Interim CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln earlier this year, NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem in 2021, and NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst in 2020.

In addition to his work at NYC Health + Hospitals, Dr. Wei is also a Professor of Emergency Medicine in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, an Adjunct Professor in the NYU School of Global Public Health, and serves as faculty for the Greater New York Hospital Association/United Hospital Fund Clinical Quality Fellowship Program. He serves on the board of MetroPlus Health and is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Dr. Wei received his Bachelor's degree in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology at University of California, Los Angeles. He completed the combined MD and MBA program at University of California, Irvine. Dr. Wei completed his Emergency Medicine residency and the Healthcare Administration Scholars Program at the University of Michigan. He was named in Modern Healthcare's 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives and in the Becker's Hospital Review Top Patient Safety Experts.

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About NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue
NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue is America's oldest public hospital, established in 1736. Affiliated with the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the 851-bed hospital is a major referral center for highly complex cases, with 6,000 employees including highly skilled, interdisciplinary clinical staff. The hospital is a Level 1 Trauma Center and annually it sees about 103,000 emergency room visits, more than 520,000 outpatient visits, and almost 200,000 visits to our COVID-19 testing and vaccine centers. Clinical centers of excellence include: Emergency Medicine and Trauma Care; Cardiovascular Services; Bariatric Surgery; Designated Regional Perinatal Center and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; Children's Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program; and Cancer Services. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org/bellevue and follow us on Facebook and X(Twitter).

About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city's five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system's trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan-all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 43,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

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