Christopher J. Anderson, PA-C

Christopher Anderson is the senior director of advanced clinical providers at Northwell Health/Lenox Hill Hospital. His clinical background includes surgical work at Montefiore Medical Center Residency Program, Jacobi Medical Center’s Surgical ICU and Northwell Health’s Southside Hospital. Prior to coming back to Northwell, he was the director of APPs at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center with a major focus on APP professional development and operational efficiency related inpatient hospital operations.

Advanced clinical providers, which include nurse practitioners and physician assistants, were an integral part of the care delivery models to care for patients with acute infections within the hospitals. At Northwell Health, especially at Lenox Hill Hospital, there were 155 inpatient ACPs, and 95 ambulatory ACPs. When the pandemic struck New York, Chris had to develop new care models, onboarding programs, and teams to care for the patients. Over 150 new beds were created at Lenox Hill Hospital including some off-site locations, which he was a part of staffing and creating access for patients who were sick with the COVID-19 disease.

As the pandemic stabilized, Chris then took on a role for transitioning patients who were improving clinically to alternate care locations, including the Javits Center, and USNS Comfort. These new workflows allowed Lenox Hill Hospital to continue to decompress and allow for access to occur for other patients within the Northwell Health System. Over 200 patients were able to be transferred to Lenox Hill Hospital to allow for proper care to be performed from hospitals with very high volumes, especially those located in Queens. Now that COVID-19 inpatient volumes at Lenox Hill Hospital continue to decrease daily, Chris is now involved in operations to re-open scheduled surgical procedures for patients with postponed surgeries.

All in all, the pandemic has been inspiring to Chris in his efforts to recruit, hire and train the best ACP staff in New York, and remain flexible to continue to adapt as the pandemic cause rapid change to occur.