NYS and Nassau County must make deal to help NUMC

The recent campaign by Nassau University Medical Center's management and its supporters to resist changing the troubled hospital's leadership has underscored the urgency for New York State and Nassau County officials to reach an agreement that would quickly bring in a skilled, experienced temporary operator who can right the ship.

As the state has ratcheted up its efforts, hospital chairman Matthew Bruderman, along with employees, supporters and elected officials, spent this week touting interim chief executive Megan Ryan, as they sought to keep her in charge. On Wednesday, advocates for Ryan even pushed supporters via social media to call Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman daily "before he meets with NYS leadership" to say "No leadership change needed! No temporary operator!"

They argue the safety net hospital doesn't need new management. In their telling, the hospital requires just one thing: state funding — with no strings attached.

It's an erroneous argument, built on a flimsy house of cards. NUMC's fiscal woes haven't dissipated and its top management, which includes Ryan, and its governance, which includes Bruderman, have not improved the hospital substantially. Nor have they articulated a detailed plan for its future or even completed tasks required earlier this year by the state Health Department.

NUMC's financial troubles and questions over patient care aren't new. Management dysfunction and governance rife with political patronage have, save for rare exceptions, long remained the norm. Promises are made and broken; little has changed.

But Ryan, Bruderman and others are trying to suggest that's no longer the case. As an attempt at proof, Bruderman said the hospital's cash on hand increased to nearly $50 million, up from $19 million in February. But that means little when the hospital's debt to the New York Health Insurance Plan continues to rise. Each month, the hospital pays just $2 million of the $9 million it owes, amounting to $84 million in increased arrears to the state just in the last year. Its total debt: $380 million.

Bruderman, Ryan and their supporters are right about one thing: NUMC's importance to area residents, staff and the region. But the status quo isn't the answer.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and County Executive Bruce Blakeman must work together, and quickly, to solve this crisis. They should agree to install a temporary operator at NUMC soon, someone who can bring in new team members, make necessary changes, and develop a plan for the hospital's future. The current chief executive, chairman and board must go, to allow the new operator the freedom to act. Only when it has faith in the institution's management and operations should the state provide funding to stabilize the hospital, a game plan for the NYSHIP debt, and any additional assistance the new team might require.

This is a chance for Hochul and Blakeman to govern with courage, by making an extraordinarily significant move that would benefit NUMC, its employees and its patients. But they must start now.