Over 90 Bridgeport Hospital physicians selected for Top Doctors list

BRIDGEPORT, CT (April 1, 2017) – More than 90 physicians on the Bridgeport Hospital Medical Staff and nearly 300 throughout Yale New Haven Health have been selected by their colleagues to be included in Connecticut Magazine’s 2017 Top Doctors listing.

The magazine conducted an annual survey of more than 5,000 doctors, asking them to recommend a doctor other than themselves to whom they would send a loved one for expert medical care. The responses produced a list of more than 800 doctors in over 30 specialties. 

“Over the past 15 years, we changed the culture at Bridgeport Hospital and embraced change, said Bridgeport Hospital Chief Medical Officer Michael Ivy, MD, who also serves as deputy chief medical officer of Yale New Haven Health. “In the midst of challenging economic times, we could not have done this without the hard work and support of an expert medical staff working cooperatively with nurses and other members of our patient care team.”

Dr. Ivy points to increased emergency department and inpatient volumes in recent years, improved patient satisfaction and decreased wait times in the ER and average length of stay for inpatients. In addition, thanks to ongoing quality and safety initiatives, patients are less likely to get hospital-acquired infections.

“We managed to do these things in the midst of challenging economic times,” Dr. Ivy said. “Many hospitals in the state have struggled and deferred building and infrastructure maintenance. We have worked at reducing costs so we can invest in updating our facilities and infrastructure including new roofs, windows and water, heating and cooling systems.”

But Dr. Ivy says the future pace of success at Bridgeport Hospital is threatened by the healthcare reimbursement changes that may come out of the current Congress. 

“The proposed changes will make it much more difficult for hospitals,” Dr. Ivy said. “Cuts in Medicaid funding impact us more than any other acute care hospital in Connecticut and changes in Medicare reimbursement for teaching hospitals hurt our bottom line, despite the fact that we are one of the most cost-efficient teaching hospitals in the country. We will have to embrace new approaches as we work to increase volume and revenue, while continuing to make safe, high quality patient care our priority.” 

The Bridgeport Hospital physicians on the 2017 Top Doctors list are: 

Jossie Abraham, Robert Altbaum, Vivian Argento, John Awad. Kenneth Backman, Danielle Benaviv-Meskin, David Bindelglass, Emily Blair, Dante Brittis, David Brown, Joseph Camilleri, Julie Cantatore-Francis, Domenic Casablanca, Bradford Chervin, Robert Chessin, Tom Coffey, Elin Cohen, Michael Connolly, Daniel Davis, Robert Dawe, Frank Detterbeck, Aaron Dommu, Mitchell Dreisman, Andrew  Duffy, Irwin Feintzeig, Alan Feldman, Neal Fischbach, Lawrence Fisher, Steven Fisher, Robert Fishman, Craig Floch, Neil Floch, Mitchell Fogel, Richard Freedman, Richard Garvey, Philip Greenspan, Jeffrey Gruskay, Germano Guadagnoli, William Hunt, Ian Karol, Andrew Kenler, Anya Kishinevsky, Rhonda Klein, Chunwang Lam, Seth Lerner, James Lettera, Kenneth Lipow, Kenneth Mauer, Jay Meizlish, Goran Miljkovic, Abraham Mintz, Lawrence Muldoon, Geoffrey Nadzam, Joao Nascimento, Michael Noonan, Paul Nussbaum, Joseph O’Connell, Michael Opalak, Edward Paraiso, Jo-Anne Passalacqua, David Passaretti, Rabert Patrignelli, Adam Pearl, John Persing, Brian Pollack, Vikran Reddy, Michael Redler, Glenn Rich, Sara Richer, Michael Saffir, Ronald Salem, Zane Saul, Adam Schussheim,  Perry Shear, Philip Simkovitz, Peter Small, James Spak, Frank Spano, Mark Steckel, Scott Thornton, Peter Tortora, Tito Vasquez, Nicholas Viner, Daniel Weiland, Amy Weinrib, Robert Weinstein, David Witt, Abraham Yale and Gary Zimmerman.

To access the complete Top Doctors list, visit connecticutmag.com/topdocs. 

Bridgeport Hospital, part of Yale New Haven Health, is a non-profit 501-bed acute care hospital with two campuses (plus 42 beds licensed to Yale New Haven Children's Hospital). Its Bridgeport and Milford Campuses serve patients from across the region. The hospital admits more than 23,000 patients and provides nearly 350,000 outpatient treatments annually. The Connecticut Burn Center at Bridgeport Hospital is the only burn center in the state and one of only 64 verified burn centers in the United States. Bridgeport Hospital is committed to providing safe, compassionate and cost efficient care to its patients and the community. www.bridgeporthospital.org