SAFER PATIENTS, BETTER HOSPITAL
SMITH HELPS KEEP STANDARDS HIGH AT NYU LANGONE MEDICAL CENTER
By Krystle Russin
Posted by Our Town on February 26, 2009 · View Comments
With her brunette bob, youthful face and enthusiastic retelling of a recent weekend in Florida with her husband, Gordon, Norma Smith exudes excitement.
“I am a Type A overachiever. Seventy is the new 50,” she said, smiling as she poured herself chamomile tea.
And overachieve she has, serving as a member of the advisory board for the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, the orthopedics arm of NYU Langone Medical Center, on East 17th Street. She is also on NYU Langone’s board of trustees.
Smith’s involvement at the hospital was somewhat accidental. As president of her co-op at 880 Fifth Ave., she managed everything from thanking staff at holidays to resolving problems in the building’s 180 apartments. Two of her fellow co-op board members noticed how well she ran the building and recommended her to the Hospital for Joint Diseases in 1983. With daughters Robin and Randy away at college, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Norma Smith is now overseeing the renovation of Tisch Hospital and construction of the new Kimmel Pavilion.
During her first meeting at the hospital, she was given the assignment of chairing the Quality Assessment and Improvement Committee. Just as she worked to graduate with honors from Finch College, Smith gave it her all, visiting the hospital every Saturday for two years.
Together with doctors, she helped NYU Langone become New York’s only facility to be honored by the Leapfrog Group, an organization that recognizes health care safety. Today, the hospital is ranked in the top 50 best hospitals nationwide.
“Patients are safer today than they ever were before. Our quality of care is so excellent, so far beyond most of the hospitals,” Smith said. “We are now at the point where we’re able to anticipate the problems before they become problems.”
Her next project is to oversee the renovation and expansion of Langone’s medical units. The board recently received two gifts totaling $260 million to renovate Tisch Hospital and to build the new Kimmel Pavilion, an inpatient facility next to the hospital, with additional funds for projects like a new state-of-the-art Ambulatory Musculoskeletal Center.
Smith’s passion for helping patients is shared by her daughter, Dr. Robin L. Smith, who is CEO of a stem cell bank and research company, and who also sits on the advisory board for the Hospital for Joint Diseases.
If Smith has a lesson to share, it’s probably the importance of hard work and persistence—not a surprise coming from a person who gets on the treadmill each morning and who orders the same thing at every restaurant (grilled chicken and vegetables).
“I knew nothing about hospital service,” Smith said. “I wanted to do a good job so I learned anything I could possibly learn. Once you see progress, it’s very rewarding.”
