Michael J. Dowling the President and Chief Executive Officer of North Shore-LIJ Health System has been  ranked 38th in Modern Healthcare magazine’s annual listing of the nation’s “100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare,” making the list for the sixth consecutive year. 

Dowling was the top-ranked hospital executive in the New York area and the only New York state hospital or health system CEO to crack the top 100.

The hospital executive grew up in Limerick, Ireland. He earned his undergraduate degree from University College Cork and his MA from Fordham.  He has honorary doctorates from Hofstra University and Dowling College.

Leading Modern Healthcare’s “most powerful” list are: John Roberts, Chief Justice of the United States; Mark Bertolini, president of Aetna; Dr. John Kitzhaber, governor of Oregon; and President Barack Obama. 

Dowling has been North Shore-LIJ’s president and CEO since January 2002, after having served as the health system’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. Before joining North Shore-LIJ in 1995, he served in New York State government for 12 years, including seven years as State Director of Health, Education and Human Services and Deputy Secretary to the Governor. He was also commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services.

In the past Dowling has been honored by the Irish Voice newspaper for his contribution as part of the top “Business 100”, an award bestowed to the top Irish in their field.

Dowling is the chairman of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership and the chairman of the North American Board of the Smurfit School of Business at University College, Dublin, Ireland.

North Shore-LIJ is the nation’s third-largest, non-profit, secular healthcare system. It includes 16 hospitals throughout Long Island, Queens, Staten Island and Manhattan, 20 long-term care facilities, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, five home health agencies, three trauma centers, the Hospice Care Network, dozens of outpatient centers across the region and the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine.

Excluding its affiliate organizations, North Shore-LIJ facilities house more than 6,000 hospital and long-term care beds, have more than 9,400 physicians, and employ more than 10,000 nurses and a total workforce of about 44,000 employees. That makes it the largest employer on Long Island and the ninth-largest in New York City.