NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi | North Central Bronx CEO Christopher Mastromano announced Feb. 24 that Michelle Soto, MD, MBA, FASAM, has been appointed medical director of ambulatory care at NYC Health + Hospitals/North Central Bronx (NCB). Dr. Soto will oversee NCB’s many outpatient clinics in this role, including its pediatric, women’s health, primary care, and the medical and surgical specialties.

 

“Dr. Soto is a welcome addition to the NCB family,” said Mastromano. “She has served as a physician for two decades in both NYC Health + Hospitals facilities and multidisciplinary practices.  She lives our mission to provide patient-centered medicine, and I am confident that the care we provide to the greater NCB community will continue to reach new heights under her leadership.”

 

According to NYC Health + Hospitals officials, Soto received her bachelor of science degree from the CUNY School of Medicine in 1998, and graduated with a doctoral degree in medicine from SUNY Downstate in 2001. After completing her internal medicine residency at Jacobi Medical Center, located in Morris Park, in 2004, they said she went on to be a practicing physician at several primary care practices before returning to NYC Health + Hospitals and working at NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Morrisania, and later NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull

 

They said there, she led efforts to provide primary care services to chronically ill mental health patients. They said Soto is boarded in internal medicine and addiction medicine and brings extensive experience to her new role. They said she has served as the medical director of a federally qualified health center (FQHC), held a senior leadership position in the field of behavioral health and substance use disorder, and returned to the health system as the director of primary care for NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health, formerly known as NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island.

 

NYC Health + Hospitals officials said there, she oversaw quality and access projects and later helped transition to virtual care during the COVID pandemic. They said in 2020, she was promoted to chief of ambulatory care and later also served as the health equity officer at South Brooklyn Health.

 

“I believe that healthcare is a human right we all deserve irrespective of our ability to pay, the language we speak, our race, gender, religion or immigration status. I strive to make equitable high quality healthcare accessible to all,” said Soto.

 

Beyond her medical experience and accomplishments, NYC Health + Hospitals officials said Soto obtained a master’s degree in business administration from the George Washington University School of Business. They said she is bilingual in English and Spanish and a lifelong New Yorker, born in Brooklyn to proud Puerto Rican parents. They said Soto is passionate about improving health equity and literacy for all, and when she’s not working, she enjoys traveling and learning new languages.

 

For some background on the topic of ambulatory care at NCB and Jacobi Medical Center, based in Morris Park, click here. NYC Health + Hospitals confirmed to Norwood News in the context of this latest story that Jacobi and NCB operate under the same operating certificate i.e. “two facilities, one hospital” as they say. Soto’s position is NCB specific, however.

 

As reported, Jacobi earned a surgical quality designation as the Level 1 trauma center for the local region last year.