Plainview Hospital names new medical director

Plainview Hospital will start the new year with a new medical director.

Dr. Evangelos Loukas takes over on Jan. 1 from Dr. Alan Mensch, who is retiring after serving as the hospital’s medical director since 1995, Northwell Health said.

Loukas, who is associate medical director for Plainview and Syosset hospitals, “has been a valuable member of our staff, not only as a physician, but also as a leader,” Michael Fener, executive director of the two hospitals, said in a statement.

Plainview is adding new services, including bariatric weight-loss surgery and an expansion of its minimally invasive robotic surgery program, Loukas said.

Loukas, 43, has had ties to the health care system now known as Northwell since he was a teenager.

He grew up in Bayside, Queens. His father, an accountant, and his mother, a seamstress, immigrated from Greece and “brought with them a strong sense of determination to succeed and a very disciplined work ethic,” Loukas said in an interview. The pair encouraged him to study science, Loukas said.

During high school and college, Loukas volunteered as a patient and family liaison at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, where he was inspired by the “special bond and connectedness that was forged during those vulnerable times for families, and the obligation for the medical care team to be critical thinkers and problem solvers,” he said.

He earned his medical degree from NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine and returned to North Shore for his residency in internal medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. He worked at North Shore as a physician and as an associate division chief for North Shore and Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

Loukas served as director of the hospital medicine program at Plainview and Syosset hospitals from 2018 until 2020, when he was appointed to his current role. 

Loukas lives in Manhasset with his wife and their 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son.

By Maura McDermott

maura.mcdermott@newsday.commauramcdermott

Maura McDermott is a reporter on the investigations desk. Since starting at Newsday in 2012, she has also covered real estate and the business of health care.