Dr. John Santopietro has been named president and medical director of Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, effective in early September.
Santopietro joins the hospital from the Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he was chief clinical officer of behavioral health and chairman of the department of psychiatry. While at Carolinas — one of the nation”™s largest nonprofit health care delivery systems, serving 2.3 million patients a year across 900 care locations — he spearheaded such projects as the building of a state-of-the-art psychiatric hospital, integrating behavioral health into primary care and emergency rooms using virtual teams and telemedicine, and launching a psychiatric residency program.
Santopietro will succeed Silver Hill”™s current President and Medical Director Sigurd Ackerman, who has served in that capacity for 14 years. During his tenure, Ackerman strengthened treatment programs, initiated and expanded the hospital”™s current transitional living programs, led the renovation of facilities on the hospital”™s 43-acre campus and stabilized finances.
Santopietro is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He serves on multiple national boards including the American Association of Community Psychiatrists, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the American Hospital Association”™s Governing Council of the Section for Psychiatric and Substance Abuse Services.
He was president of the Connecticut Psychiatric Society in 2012, earning an award for his leadership during the Sandy Hook tragedy. Santopietro also was appointed by governors in both North Carolina and Connecticut to serve on mental health commissions and co-chaired a task force on mental health convened by the North Carolina Institute of Medicine.
