Dr. Nick Fitterman, Huntington Hospital’s executive director, is a native Long Islander who has embraced the Town of Huntington as his “personal and professional home.”
Run by New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health, the state-of-the-art healthcare facility strives to offer the kind of unsurpassed care and compassion to patients that has been valued by Dr. Fitterman since before he began his career. He says childhood experiences with his family’s pediatrician were the driving forces behind him becoming a physician.
“We didn’t have a lot of money,” he says. “[My pediatrician] took care of us and I always remember how grateful my parents were. This one person could impact the lives of the whole family. I wanted to be able to do something like that.”
In his previous roles as head of hospitalists at Huntington Hospital and vice chair of medicine at Northwell, Dr. Fitterman says he was able to help address “the changing landscape of patients’ needs and available treatment” and “improve efficiencies and quality at numerous hospitals.”
In October 2018, Dr. Fitterman leapt at the opportunity to become the executive director at Huntington Hospital. He recalls thinking, “How great would it be to potentially have even more influence to improve the care of the community I live in? This job to me is a dream job.”
Dr. Fitterman praises Huntington Hospital’s exceptional collaborative team that includes physicians, nursing staff, aides, and environmental workers.
“These people are really committed to relieving suffering of anyone that walks through our doors,” he says.
Huntington Hospital was previously ranked the 12th best hospital in the state and 14th in the region by U.S. News & World Report’s 2019-20 Best Hospitals rankings.
“What all this reflects is that the community should feel safe,” he says. “They don’t need to travel to get world-class care — it’s right here in their backyard.”
Dr. Fitterman says Huntington Hospital will continue to raise the bar in healthcare with plans to build a world-class cancer center in Huntington as part of the Northwell Cancer Institute as well as developing a neuroscience center. In addition, the hospital aims to enhance its already outstanding orthopedic and bariatric programs.
“We are building programs here not to create a demand but rather, to meet the needs of community,” he says. “Healthcare should be a right and not a privilege. The sanctity of a physician-patient relationship is paramount to good care.”
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