Mitchell Katz, MD, is President and Chief Executive Officer of NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest municipal health care system in the United States, with a workforce of more than 40,000 health care professionals across a network of 11 hospitals, 5 skilled nursing facilities, dozens of community health centers, a home care agency and an insurance plan, MetroPlusHealth.

Since his appointment in 2018, the health system has significantly expanded access to a wide range of health care services, including the creation of NYC Care, a universal health access program for uninsured New Yorkers serving more than 100,000 members.

Dr. Katz oversaw the adoption of a modern electronic health record system, increased the number of nurse positions in the system, developed a modern ambulance transport system, and expanded outreach and housing programs to improve the health of homeless New Yorkers. He also led the financial turn-around of NYC Health + Hospitals by eliminating the deficit through enrolling more New Yorkers into health insurance and appropriately billing insurance plans.

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Katz provided strategic guidance to the City, while directing the public health system’s response to the surge of patients that peaked to a maximum of 3,700 patients, requiring the tripling of ICU capacity at its 11 hospitals to save New Yorkers. As the epicenter of the epicenter, NYC Health + Hospitals became the trusted care provider for thousands of New Yorkers, led the city’s Test & Trace operation including administering nearly 18 million COVID-19 tests and more than 1.3 million COVID-19 vaccines.

Under his leadership, NYC Health + Hospitals provided more than 18,000 vaccinations to quell the Mpox outbreak, and has provided food, shelter, and supportive services to more than 20,000 asylum seekers.

Previously, Dr. Katz served as the Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS), the second largest public safety net system in the United States. During this time, he created the ambulatory care network and empaneled more than 350,000 patients to a primary care home. He eliminated the deficit of DHS through increased revenues and decreased administrative expenses, and used ACA funding to pay for a new integrated electronic health system. He moved more than 4,000 medically complex patients from hospitals and emergency departments into independent housing, thereby eliminating unnecessary expensive hospital care and giving the patients the dignity of their own home.

Before he came to Los Angeles, Dr. Katz served as Director and Health Officer of the San Francisco Department of Health for 13 years. He is well known for funding needle exchange, creating Healthy San Francisco, outlawing the sale of tobacco at pharmacies, and winning ballot measures for rebuilding Laguna Honda Hospital and San Francisco General Hospital.

He is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Medical School. He completed an internal medicine residency at UCSF Medical School and was an RWJ Clinical Scholar. Dr. Katz practices as a primary care physician at NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Gouverneur on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.