Saving NUMC a worthy goal

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a brutal drain on the lives and emotional well-being of so many Americans. But the crisis has eased difficulties and suggested a brighter future in some unexpected places, including the Nassau University Medical Center.

Thanks to a flurry of federal spending in response to the coronavirus, many states, local governments and other public entities that were financially strapped before the pandemic and could have cratered during it, now find themselves surprisingly well funded. That could and should give rise to new opportunities and paths forward.

Few organizations are more in need of an optimistic reset, a fresh start and a realistic path forward than NUMC.

Before the pandemic, Nassau County’s public-mission hospital was in desperate financial straits, facing huge debts and liabilities and an annual deficit of $100 million. Located in an enormous and archaic physical plant, burdened with a poor reputation and terrible quality evaluations and shunned by many patients, NUMC’s future looked certain to include either a massive downsizing or a complete closure.

And it may still.

But COVID has left NUMC better funded, and created a lot more hesitancy about folding up 500 hospital beds and losing 3,000 hospital workers we just might need one day.

A new board chairman, Edward Farbenblum, has increasing success getting county and state officials and medical professionals to believe in a rosier future for NUMC. Farbenblum is fighting to make the hospital financially efficient and opportunistic about every penny it can possibly bring in. Changes in federal Medicaid funding formulas intended to help hospitals like NUMC could also be a big help. Farbenblum wants to show the losses can be reined in, and focus on recruiting talent to provide strong services in specialties its current and prospective customer base needs.

It’s a tall order, and filling it won’t be possible without help from new county and state leaders.

Departing Democratic County Executive Laura Curran appointed Farbenblum and was increasingly supportive of his plan. Now Republican Bruce Blakeman is coming in.

But the return of GOP control can’t mean the hospital returns to the days when it was a major patronage pit and a professional parking lot for down-on-their-luck pols.

Gov. Kathy Hochul must also be ready to help by potentially letting NUMC ally with Stony Brook University Hospital, which would smooth NUMC’s path and increase its insurance reimbursements.

Moving some veterans’ health services there would also alleviate tough travel for many Nassau County veterans, and give the federal government some skin in the game.

And the CSEA, locally and at the state level, must push politicians at every level to legitimately pursue a bright future for NUMC.

Maintaining a public-mission hospital in Nassau that offers a suite of targeted quality services while operating efficiently and budgeting effectively remains a worthwhile goal.