New York’s largest hospital system is now moonlighting as a television studio.
Northwell Health, which is also the state’s biggest private employer, has launched Northwell Studio — a Long Island production facility now developing scripted and docu-style medical shows.
Michael Dowling, Northwell’s CEO, told The Post he wants to capture the public fascination with shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” — but also raise the profile of the 21 hospitals owned by the company, and even attract talent in a way other medical providers can’t.
“Now, if you’re thinking of a movie studio, what do they do? They create a building, they create a situation, and then they have actors and actresses performing,” Dowling explained. “But I have the real thing in the real world.”
His company also already has six Emmys, for two hit Netflix shows that were made with outside production companies. Now, Northwell is in the director’s seat.
The beginning of Northwell’s rise to television fame began as hospitals were barraged with sick patients in the early days of covid.
The healthcare network had already given access to an outside crew in 2018, when they began filming “Lenox Hill,” a Netflix docu-series following four doctors at the Upper East Side hospital of the same name.
But when the pandemic hit in March 2020 and hospitals forbade even family members from visiting loved ones, Dowling agreed to open one of Northwell’s hospitals, Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, to a handful of documentary crew members for five months. That team shot more than 850 hours of film and turned it into the Emmy Award-winning documentary “First Wave.”
“During Covid … we allowed a documentary crew into one of our top hospitals… to film what went on every day in the hospital,” Dowling said. “And one of the things that people don’t fully appreciate all the time is what health care staff do each and every day.”
Northwell’s New Hyde Park studio, which was announced in July, will enhance those efforts by developing both scripted and unscripted content as well as helping with logistics of filming, Dowling explained.
While Dowling sees only upside to filming in hospitals, it is a complicated matter to get patient and doctor sign-offs for a series that involves such sensitive information.
“NY Med,” another real-life medical show that launched in 2012 was canceled two seasons in for not getting the proper authority to film patients. Another New York hospital system, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, ended up paying $2.2 million in federal penalties and calling it quits.
But Dowling said they are extremely cautious to avoid filming patients and believe that having more control over the production process will give them further autonomy to prevent mistakes.
Dowling told The Post that Northwell hasn’t made any money from the documentaries — but the hospital has increased its public profile, which translates to more patients choosing Northwell Health.
It is also a tool to attract doctors.
“Talent is attracted to organizations that are innovative and creative, that want to do things a little bit differently,” Dowling explains. “I’ve been taking the lead in a lot of things that other people don’t do.”
“NY Med” helped crystalize Dr. Mehmet Oz’s reputation as a celebrity doctor and Lenox Hill has already done the same for some doctors in the Northwell system, like neurosurgeon Dr. David Langer who has now been profiled in The Post and The New York Times as a result of his Netflix appearance.
And with the medical system facing a shortage of tens of thousands of physicians in the coming years, the reality shows could inspire a new generation to become doctors.
For now, it’s full steam ahead, with a new series about mental health, “The Village,” on the heels of “One South — Portrait of a Psych Unit,” which premiered on Max this summer. Northwell is simultaneously filming four other series.
And Dowling is thrilled to be working on projects that show how New York has recovered since 2020, when the city felt like a ghost town.
“During Covid … I made the joke you could have fallen asleep on 5th Avenue and nobody would hit you,” Dowling said. “People would write stories that New York is going to be a problem … it will never come back.”
“But New York is resilient… it has gone through tough periods in the past,” he added. “It is rejuvenated — just walk around.”
This story is part of NYNext, a new editorial series that highlights New York City innovation across industries, as well as the personalities leading the way.
