Stephen M. Winter MD, chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Norwalk Hospital, is congratulated by hospital officials for being the recipient of the Robert Ready Award for Patient Safety and Quality. From left are Lewis Berman MD, chairman of the Department of Medicine, Dr. Winter, Mr. Ready, and Dan DeBarba, president of Norwalk Hospital and executive vice president of the Western Connecticut Health Network.
A Ridgefield physician with an extensive public service record, including leading Red Cross efforts after the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2011, has been recognized by Norwalk Hospital for his work to improve quality of service.
Ridgefield physician Stephen M. Winter received the Norwalk Hospital Robert Ready Award for Patient Safety and Quality.
Dr. Winter is chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Norwalk Hospital, and clinical professor of medicine at Yale University School of Medicine.
The award is given annually to promote continuous commitment to patient safety and quality at Norwalk Hospital.
During his six years as a member of the Norwalk Hospital board of trustees, Dr. Winter was said to be instrumental in promoting quality, patient safety and best practice medical care as a major strategic focus of the hospital. His efforts led to the development of a section of quality within the hospital and a formal quality committee of the board, of which he has been a member since its inception.
A spokesperson for the hospital said Dr. Winters has a background in industrial engineering, systems analysis and computer modeling that has helped him develop processes and models of quality within the hospital.
Academics
Dr. Winter was born in Germany to the family of a career United States Army officer, and his early overseas experiences initiated a lifelong commitment to global health care and disaster relief.
He received his bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering from the University of Illinois before earning a master of science degree in systems analysis at Stanford University. He completed medical school at Cornell University and remained at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center for internal medicine training before continuing on to fellowship training in pulmonary medicine at Yale University.
As chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Norwalk Hospital and clinical professor of medicine at Yale, Dr. Winter has been involved in the academic programs at Norwalk Hospital and Yale and has been instrumental in building the medical intensive care unit, the sleep disorders center, the wound care and hyperbaric medicine center, and the nationally recognized lung cancer program at Norwalk Hospital.
Public service
His career in public service began in 1980 at a refugee camp on the Cambodian border and today spans 30 years and five continents. Dr. Winter has provided clinical care and medical assessments in some of the most challenging environments in the world, including Rwanda, North Korea, Afghanistan, Haiti, the Republic of Congo, Macedonia, Kosovo, Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Albania, El Salvador, Liberia, Uganda, the Amazon jungle, and Darfur.
In service to his own country, Dr. Winter headed an American Red Cross critical care team for Operation Desert Storm and on Sept. 11, 2001, was helicoptered into ground zero to set up a triage and evacuation station near the World Trade Center. As an active volunteer in his community, Dr. Winter has been a regular physician for the AmeriCares Norwalk Free Clinic since 1995 and serves on the board of directors for the Americares Free Clinics and the AmeriCares Foundation.
His current interests include work with Amazon Promise to organize and provide health care in remote villages in the Amazon jungle and organization of systems of care in the intensive care unit of a large hospital in Kampala, Uganda. In an effort to provide long-term medical expertise to underserved populations, Dr. Winter’s family has, to date, funded 14 rural Ethiopian students through health care-related training programs.
Many honors
For more than a decade Dr. Winter has been named a top doctor in the Castle Connolly Guide and listed in the Woodward/White Best Doctors in America and the Consumers’ Research Council of America Guide to America’s Top Physicians. He has also received many honors, including the 2010 American Thoracic Society Public Service Award, the 2009 American College of Chest Physicians Humanitarian Award and the 2007 American College of Chest Physicians Distinguished Service Award for his voluntary efforts throughout the world.