(New Brunswick, NJ) - Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), an RWJBarnabas Health facility, has named Chief Operating Officer (COO) Alan Lee as its president effective June 7.
With this change all RWJUH clinical and operational leadership will report to Mr. Lee, building on the successful partnerships among nursing, operations and finance that he has helped form since joining RWJUH last year.
Mr. Lee will continue to report to RWJUH Chief Executive Officer Bill Arnold and will serve as interim COO while the organization conducts a national search for a successor in that role.
“Since joining RWJUH in the fall of 2021, Alan has assembled a strong operations leadership team that has yielded results against our strategic plan to become a premier academic medical center at the core of the RWJBarnabas Health academic health system,” Mr. Arnold said. “I expect this momentum to continue under his leadership at the hospital and through our partnership with Rutgers University. Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Dean Amy Murtha, MD and I will continue to support Alan’s work and further our shared vision of providing nationally-recognized medical care, education and research in the state, as well as destination care.”
“We are excited to have Alan assume his new role as President of RWJUH,” said Jack Morris, Chair of the RWJUH Board of Directors. “During his time as COO, Alan demonstrated that he can attract top talent and build a high-functioning team. He is a passionate advocate for culture, which is critical to the RWJUH team as we recover from the pandemic and build a world-class medical center where the top health care professionals want to work and where patients in New Jersey and beyond receive the highest levels of care.”RWJUH is a 640-bed hospital and New Jersey’s largest academic medical center through its deep partnership with Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. In addition, The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at RWJUH is a 105-bed, dedicated children’s hospital that serves as the hub of the state’s only pediatric academic medical campus, which includes the Rutgers Child Health Institute and PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital. RWJUH is a state-designated Level I Trauma Center and provides quaternary level care in cardiovascular services, neuroscience, gastroenterology and GI surgery, organ transplantation, robotic surgery, gynecology, emergency medicine and more. RWJUH is the flagship location of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the state’s only NCI-designated cancer program, and the future home to the Jack and Sheryl Morris Cancer Center.
Mr. Lee came to RWJUH from New York-Presbyterian (NYP), where he served in multiple senior leadership roles since 2009. He was Vice President of Support Services and Patient Experience at NYP/Weill Cornell, then Vice President of Operations at NYP/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, before assuming the role of Chief Operating Officer at NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. During his time there, Mr. Lee led strategic initiatives focused on patient experience, operations and capital expansion, environmental services, patient throughput and length of stay management.
Mr. Lee began his career in hotel management where he established a strong foundation in customer service and environmental standards at several New York City-based luxury and deluxe hotel brands, including the Millennium Broadway, the Regent Wall Street, and the Ritz-Carlton New York Battery Park and Hudson, an Ian Schrager Hotel.
About Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), an RWJBarnabas Health Facility, is a 640-bed academic medical center that is New Jersey’s largest academic medical center through its deep partnership with Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. RWJUH is the flagship Cancer Hospital of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, and other Centers of Excellence include cardiovascular care from minimally invasive heart surgery to transplantation, cancer care, stroke care, neuroscience, orthopedics, bariatric surgery and women’s and children’s care including The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (www.bmsch.org). A Level 1 Trauma Center and the first designated Pediatric Trauma Center in the state, RWJUH’s New Brunswick campus serves as a national resource in its ground-breaking approaches to emergency preparedness.
RWJUH has earned significant national recognition for clinical quality and patient safety, including the prestigious Magnet® Recognition for Nursing Excellence and being named to Newsweek’s 2022 list of Best Maternity Care Hospitals. The RWJUH Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center has been recognized by The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association as meeting The Joint Commission's standards for Disease-Specific Care Comprehensive Stroke Center Advanced Certification. RWJUH has also earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for Disease-Specific Care Certification for Spine Surgery; The Joint Commission Gold Seal Certification for Bariatric Services; and The Joint Commission Gold Seal Certification for Hip and Knee Replacement services. The Joint Commission also awarded RWJUH a Gold Seal Certification as well as an Advanced Certification in Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) Implantation.
Contact: Peter Haigney
RWJUH Public Relations
(732) 937-8568