RWJ University Hospital Appoints Rubinson as Chief Medical Officer

On Jun 28, 2022

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) has named Lewis Rubinson, MD, PhD, FCCP, as its senior vice president, chief medical officer (CMO) and chief quality officer (CQO).

With more than two decades of C-suite, clinical, academic and government experience, Dr. Rubinson brings expertise in critical care medicine and public health to New Jersey’s largest academic medical center, which is also one of the three state-designated Level I Trauma Centers in New Jersey. He will draw on his experience in academic medicine and government disaster response efforts to advance clinical care and patient outcomes at RWJUH.

In his role as CMO, Dr. Rubinson will work with the Medical Staff Executive Committee to engage and lead the nearly 2,000 physicians and advanced practice providers at RWJUH, who are comprised of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School faculty, RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group physicians and community practice physicians. As CQO, Dr. Rubinson will drive clinical performance standards at RWJUH in terms of quality and safety metrics with the goal of achieving superior patient care delivery and outcomes. He is responsible for integration and coordination of clinical practices across all service lines, alignment of physician activities with the RWJUH strategic plan, quality and patient safety strategies, infection control and performance improvement initiatives.

“Dr. Rubinson’s extensive experience in academic medicine, emergency response and his commitment to clinical excellence will propel Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital as we build New Jersey’s first premier academic medical center,” said Bill Arnold, president and chief executive officer of RWJUH. “He joins an exceptional leadership team at RWJUH that I believe will change the landscape of health care in our state, and especially for our vulnerable populations who cannot leave New Jersey for specialized care.”

RWJUH board of directors Chair Jack Morris adds, “Dr. Rubinson’s leadership is pivotal towards Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital becoming the top hospital in New Jersey and a nationally-recognized academic medical center. We are confident in his ability to contribute significantly to our strategic plan initiatives around quality and safety, patient experience and clinical excellence.”

Dr. Rubinson joins RWJUH from Morristown Medical Center where he was chief medical officer, working on numerous optimizations and expansions, as well as overseeing the hospital’s COVID-19 response. Previously, he held multiple leadership positions at the University of Maryland, including as the first director of their critical care resuscitation unit, where he developed a clinical model to ensure transfer patients get timely access to expert care for time-sensitive non-trauma cases. He also served as the assistant CMO, and vice president and deputy chief clinical officer and was professor of medicine in the Trauma and Critical Care Program at the R. Adams Crowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine.

Additionally, Dr. Rubinson has served in local and federal government, including as the disaster medicine director for Seattle-King County Public Health, and at both the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services. He was the CMO for the federal medical response to Super Storm Sandy and has been a ‘boots on the ground’ responder for numerous disasters, including Hurricane Katrina, and was the clinical lead at the Ebola unit in Kenema, Sierra Leone in September 2014.

Dr. Rubinson attended medical school at Northwestern University and earned his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Clinical Investigation from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, as well as a fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in Pulmonary and Critical Care. From 2009-2013, Dr. Rubinson served as a Commander in the United States Public Health Service.

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