Barnabas Health Names New President and CEO for Saint Barnabas Medical Center

On Jul 2, 2015

Stephen P. Zieniewicz, FACHE, executive director of the University of Washington Medical Center (UWMC) in Seattle, Washington, since 2007, has been named president and chief executive officer of Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingsto. The announcement was made by Barry H. Ostrowsky, president and chief executive officer of Barnabas Health, who confirmed that Zieniewicz will assume his new position on September 8, 2015.

Prior to his position at UWMC, Zieniewicz served as chief Ooerating officer at Saint Louis University Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, a for-profit Academic Medical Center, from 2004 to 2007.  From 1977 until 2004, he held administrative positions at several hospitals in New York, including South Nassau Communities Hospital, Long Island Health Network, Winthrop-University Hospital, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and North Shore University Hospital.

“Mr. Zieniewicz is a health care executive with extensive leadership experience in complex academic medical centers,” stated Ostrowsky. “At the University of Washington Medical Center, his consistent focus has been on safety, quality, physician alignment, evidence-based performance improvement, and population health, among many areas.

“As health care in America is changing, Saint Barnabas Medical Center and Barnabas Health are transforming to maintain our position among the nation’s foremost providers of health care and wellness services. I am extremely pleased that our world-class medical center will be guided by a proven heath care leader whose strengths correlate so directly with our system’s goals.”

Saint Barnabas Medical Center, founded in 1865, is New Jersey’s oldest non-profit, non-sectarian hospital. More than 3,600 employees and nurses, and 1,700 physicians, representing more than 100 medical and surgical specialty and subspecialty services, annually provide treatment and services for 33,000 inpatients, 93,000 emergency department visits, and 130,000 outpatients and deliver nearly 6,000 babies. The award-winning, 597-bed institution is a major teaching affiliate of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, The New York College of Osteopathic Medicine and St. Georges University School of Medicine in Grenada, and trains 170 medical students, residents, and fellows.  Saint Barnabas is also a clinical site for both of New Jersey’s physician assistant training schools.  The Medical Center was honored in 2014 as Top Performer on Key Quality Measures from the Joint Commission, one of 405 hospitals of 3,099 in the United States.  Among its many nationally recognized services are The Burn Center, New Jersey’s only certified burn treatment facility, and the Living Donor Kidney Transplant Program, the fourth largest in the nation.

UWMC, the flagship of UW Medicine, is a nationally recognized Academic Medical Center that provides highly specialized quaternary patient care in an innovative translational research environment, including solid organ transplant – heart, lung, kidney, liver, pancreas – Level III NICU, and Regional Heart Center. UWMC achieved the first Magnet Hospital designation and has been recertified for five survey cycles. Becker’s Health has named UMWC one of the 100 Great Hospitals for the last three years and UWMC is ranked the #1 hospital in the state of Washington.

Zieniewicz is a board certified Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE) and is the elected Regent for Washington.  He holds several board appointments in the Washington medical community including Chairperson for the American Heart Association Puget Sound Region, University Health System Consortium member board; Washington State Healthcare Executives Forum Board member; and was the chairperson of the Greater Puget Sound March of Dimes, March for Babies in 2010.  Awards and articles include 100 Leaders of Great Hospitals by Becker’s Healthcare 2013; Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, Clinical Learning Environment Review; American College of Surgeons Award for Inspiring Quality; and he is a Lecturer and Mentor at the University of Washington Health Administration Program.

A graduate of St. John’s University in Jamaica, New York, with a Bachelor of Science degree, Zieniewicz received a Master of Public Health from Columbia University School of Public Health. He is married to Linda J. Hipps, MD, a Gynecologist.

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