Board warfare leaves NUMC in critical condition

The purpose of Nassau University Medical Center’s board of directors is assuring that the county’s only public-mission hospital delivers quality medical care to the community and keeping its finances stable. The current board has no time or energy to spare for these priorities of late. It's all controversy, chaos, and court filings. Power struggles are the priority now.

Here’s the play-by-play since Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman took the reins:

Just before former County Executive Laura Curran left office in 2021, she appointed three people to the NUMC board: Jason Abelove, who’d just lost a bid for Hempstead Town supervisor; Lisa Daniels, who’d failed to win a seat on the county Legislature; and Ann Kayman. All three are attorneys.

Once in office, Blakeman asserted the Kayman appointment was illegal, arguing the Democrats had mistimed the appointment. The Republicans then used the seat they claimed was vacant to appoint businessman and GOP mega donor Matthew Bruderman to the board, and name him chairman.

At a March 20 board meeting chaired by Bruderman, at which several Republican board members and their allies were physically present but Democrats had to Zoom in, Abelove and Daniels argued Bruderman should not conduct the meeting. Bruderman repeatedly shouted them down. He also threatened to "mow down" hospital board members who opposed him, and in executive session, made statements in which he distinguished between "good" and "bad" racism.

At a county legislative hearing 10 days later on Bruderman’s appointment as chair, having been reappointed to the board in a new seat after a judge upheld Kayman’s appointment, Bruderman publicly said that Blakeman would do as he asked regarding the hospital because Bruderman had donated $200,000 to the county Republican Party during the campaign.

Bruderman also said, to Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams, "What have you done for the African American community yourself? And I don't care if you're African American, you're doing the wrong thing."

After that, a recess was necessary to restore order in the chamber.

DISORDER SAPS FOCUS

On April 13, the next NUMC board meeting chaired by Bruderman, Democrats, who hold a slim majority, managed to pass a vote to dismiss hospital general counsel Meg Ryan for what several claimed was her poor performance, even as Bruderman tried to gavel the meeting closed. The Zoom link was also cut off, forcing all of the Democrats and two Republicans who stayed to maintain a quorum to reconvene by phone to fire Ryan.

But Ryan continues to work. Bruderman, Blakeman, and hospital chief executive Dr. Anthony Boutin say Ryan has not been dismissed, even as Democratic members assert she has. Democratic members say there are no open lines of communication between Bruderman and the Democratic board majority. Bruderman has not responded to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, nothing is being done to address a hospital where continuing instability becomes more likely each day to morph into eventual bankruptcy. Nothing is being done to improve care at a hospital with atrocious industry ratings and morale. Nothing is being done to rebuild NUMC’s reputation, or bolster its staff, or improve its physical plant, or plan for its future.

The board currently exists only to squabble.

An attempt by Nassau’s Democrats in the State Legislature to pass a bill expanding the board from 15 to 21 members and giving state leaders control over the new seats and the chair has stalled. A measure to compel a state control board to audit NUMC did pass, but won’t help much.

In the past four years, NUMC’s annual operating deficit has grown steadily, with shortfalls of $25.7 million in 2017, $46.6 million in 2018, $63.97 million in 2019, and $102.3 million in 2020.

Hospital officials say that, without major changes, NUMC’s annual loss will be about $120 million going forward, or about $650 per day, per bed, in the 500-bed hospital.

CRITICAL CLOSURES

If NUMC dies, some of the region’s best addiction and mental health treatment and burn care will shutter. So will a busy emergency room and ambulatory clinics. Plus the A. Holly Patterson nursing home, which cares for as many as 200 residents other homes cannot or will not take.

There are paths to a better future worth exploring, but right now this governance structure and cast of characters lack the ability to do so. Cooler heads, at every level, must prevail.

Local and state CSEA leaders, with 3,000 union jobs at stake, have to sense the danger. So, too, must Blakeman.

A power outside the political wrangling of Nassau County must find the path to NUMC’s future, and get it there.

A state commission of appointed experts with the jurisdiction to determine NUMC’s governance method and way forward is a sensible solution. Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers must approve such a plan as soon as possible. One reasonable outcome of that commission may be a merger into the SUNY system, potentially under Stony Brook University Hospital. But continuance of the status quo, which has become increasingly less tenable over the past decade, now appears impossible.

NUMC needs a fresh start. With this board, it’s at a dead end.