Anthony J. Pellicone: From First Response 911 to Facilities 101

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Decades before the dawn of Google Maps, Yogi Berra needed to give Joe Garagiola directions from New York to his house in New Jersey. “When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” the Yankee famously told his fellow catcher and lifelong friend. Another New Yorker, Anthony J. Pellicone, can relate. Today, Pellicone is a respected facilities executive in the healthcare industry, but his journey to the top has been anything but typical.

Pellicone spent the first part of his career in emergency services and started out as a volunteer firefighter on Long Island. Years spent responding to disaster and tragedy as part of an engine company prepared Pellicone for the unexpected, but nothing could have prepared him for what happened on an otherwise routine night in August 1991.

Pellicone was working long shifts while studying to become a physical therapist at the time. He had a rare night off from both work and school and decided to use the occasion to take his girlfriend out on a date. That’s when a drunk driver struck another vehicle, killing Pellicone’s best friend. On any other night, Pellicone would have received and responded to the emergency call himself.

In the aftermath of his grief, Pellicone paused school to reflect on his life. He decided to make a change and learned that NorthShore University Hospital was creating a paramedic program. Pellicone applied and was accepted. Two years later, he became the organization’s youngest graduate.

Years later, Pellicone was training to patrol the streets of Suffolk County as a Suffolk County police officer. After three months of intense instruction, he was on his way home from the academy when he flipped and rolled his Jeep. The young cadet was hospitalized with a concussion and multiple significant injuries. The ordeal helped him discover an interest in critical care medicine. Pellicone later advanced a critical care program for high-risk transport patients for NorthShore-LIJ Health System Emergency Medical Services.

Each surprising and difficult fork in the road propelled Pellicone to something new and unexpected. “There have been certain challenges, tragedies, and events that have pushed me in a different direction,” he says. “And in some ways, they’ve led to the greatest opportunities in my life.”

During his time at NorthShore, Pellicone observed all that happens after paramedics deliver a patient at an emergency department. He took what he calls a “leap of faith,” and moved to a hospital operations role. The new position taught him about finance, operations, regulatory compliance, and the integration of critical care medicine and patient movement throughout a tertiary hospital.

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When the hospital started to expand from three to nine cardiology catheterization labs, Pellicone noticed a gap in his knowledge. “I needed to know more about construction, so I entrenched myself in learning,” he says.

Pellicone values career diversification and has a never-ending hunger for knowledge. “If I can learn one thing and bring it back to any team that I’m on, that’s a win because the ideas I can bring will live on long after I’m gone,” he says. Pellicone has a BS in emergency services administration from Adelphi University, an MBA in strategic business management from Hofstra University, and operations project management certificate from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

As Pellicone amassed more skills and knowledge, he took on increasing responsibility for major construction projects. Suddenly, the man who once roamed the streets as a paramedic was building the structures where clinicians provide care.

Today, Pellicone is the vice president of facilities management in executive shared services at Northwell Health, the organization he joined in 1993. He’s using his unique blend of clinical, operational, financial, administrative, and building expertise to lead complex projects for the health system of 21 hospitals and 700 ambulatory sites.

In 2022, Pellicone was part of a steering committee that created and implemented a weapons detection program designed to enhance safety and security system wide. With active shooter incidents and hospital assaults at an all-time high, he and his counterparts at other regions in the system planned and installed a touchless, security-guard monitored system capable of detecting weapons and contraband.

Now, anyone who enters Northwell Health’s hospitals passes through a screening device. Additionally, local law enforcement officers partner with Northwell Health’s security team to provide enhanced training to armed hospital security staff members, and Northwell employees receive training on crisis response and conflict deescalation. “Northwell is committed to ensuring our team members, patients, visitors, and physicians all feel comfortable here,” Pellicone says. “This is a place where all occupants need to feel safe.”

Earlier this year, South Shore University Hospital opened its new Women and Children’s Center, a hospital within a hospital, which Pellicone calls one of the most logistically complex projects he’s ever worked on. After 15-plus years of facility construction and campus redesign, totaling near $1 billion, he calls it one of his proudest accomplishments. Improving women’s health is critical, he explains, and the benefits are not just impactful for the women but have a societal impact for this generation and the next.

The $71 million hospital within a hospital includes 29 suites for recovering mothers, a labor and delivery suite, a post-anesthesia care unit, a neonatal intensive care unit, obstetrical triage beds, operating rooms, and more. The private postpartum suites replace outdated shared rooms and feature recliners, convertible sofa beds, and other amenities “to create a full suite that embodies the beauty of life and the family support features to make the healing process amiable,” Pellicone says.

Expectant mothers spend their entire experience inside the unit without encountering the noise and activity of other departments. “The complexity of women’s health is dynamic,” Pellicone explains, “and we created a special place where we can provide them the best care.”

With the capstone project complete, Pellicone is turning his attention to standardizing processes across Northwell Health in an effort to keep up with the unending changes and constraints of modern healthcare.

He attributes his success for the continued yearning of knowledge to his key mentors, Kathleen Gallo and Susan Somerville, the leaders that guided, educated, and pushed him into challenges, thereby inspiring his career diversification. Pellicone’s current partners believe that these endeavors have paid off.

“Working with Anthony Pellicone is an absolute pleasure. He is a talented and dedicated professional who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to every project,” says Patti Petersen, CEO at Sign Acquisition, LLC, whose team backs up this praise. “Anthony is a great communicator and always goes above and beyond to ensure that Northwell facilities are always at their very best.”

Pellicone likes to stay in the know by reading trade magazines and visiting sites and departments to better understand what issues are impacting his organization. It’s like Yogi Berra once said, “You can observe a lot just by watching.”

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