By Hector Flores
Arthur Gianelli, acting president and CEO of the Nassau Health Care Corporation, the agency that runs the hospital, will present the center's new financial plan on Monday during the corporation's Board of Directors meeting. The updated plan is expected to address the hospital's financial woes by enhancing current cost-cutting initiatives.
"It is my intent to restore fiscal stability and high-quality care [to the hospital]," Gianelli said.
Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman said the announcement is good news for the hospital, which has been teetering on the brink of insolvency for the last couple of months. "Our [financial] reviews have shown that the hospital has been bordering on running out of cash for the last six months," Weitzman said. "However, with the restoration of $20 million in state budget cuts, $30 million in federal aid and a new management team, the hospital will have breathing room [to develop] a new plan for the future."
Weitzman said that he is very supportive of the hospital, and considers its success crucial for the well-being of the county. If the hospital fails to balance its books, the county would be held responsible for the facility¹s $300 million debt.
In order to keep the hospital afloat, the county has been subsidizing it to the tune of $25 million a year for the last five years. Weitzman blames rising health care costs, the increasing number of uninsured patients and the slow rate of reimbursement by Medicaid for hampering the hospital¹s fiscal recovery. ³I hope to see the plan by the end of July, and I will be reviewing it with the county¹s Interim Finance Authority, the county executive and the Legislature,² Weitzman said.
Gianelli's plan at work
One of Gianelli's new cost-cutting initiatives calls for the consolidation of the hospital's eighth and 11th floors. The floors house the center's postsurgical and cardiac patients, and they are seldom filled to capacity. The merger of the two floors will save the hospital $2 million annually and is expected to be completed this month.
"The consolidation of the eighth and 11th floors will improve patient flow and quality of care while reducing expenses to meet the current census at NUMC," Gianelli said. "The $2 million savings will be achieved by reducing the staffing costs of 40 full-time [employees]. [This] will be accomplished by not filling vacancies, reducing overtime and reducing agency per-diem nurses. No [hospital] nurse will lose their job as a result of this floor consolidation."
When finished, the 62 rooms on the 11th floor will be divided in half, with 31 rooms used for postsurgical patients and the other 31 rooms for cardiac patients.
NHCC¹s contingency plan
If Gianelli¹s plan fails, NHCC can petition the Legislature to use its share of the tobacco industry settlement a total of $98 million to offset costs. Weitzman said, ³If the hospital needs additional funds, those funds would come from the tobacco settlement, but that would require a legislative hearing.²
Nassau County Legislator Norma Gonsalves, a Republican of East Meadow, feels confident that the hospital will soon be in good financial standing. "At the present time, things look pretty optimistic," she said. "Arthur Gianelli and our consultant firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips have developed a sound fiscal plan. There is now sufficient cash flow for the hospital to operate without coming to us for additional funds. Things are moving in a very positive fashion."
What is the NHCC?
Shelley Lotenberg, a spokeswoman for the NHCC, said that the corporation was founded in 1999 and operates with an annual budget of half a billion dollars, which it uses to operate NUMC, a Level 1 trauma center and teaching hospital, with 631 beds; the Holly Patterson Geriatric Center, a nursing facility with nearly 900 beds; and seven community health care centers throughout the county.
NUMC's specialized services include orthopedics, psychiatry, obstetrics, a burn center, a hyperbaric chamber and neonatal intensive care units, and it is a first-rate emergency room provider.
"The services provided by NHCC impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of county residents each year," Lotenberg said. "They treat close to 80,000 emergency room patients, 200,000 clinic visits at NUMC and over 60,000 clinic visits at the community health care centers. We are the largest safety net hospital, with 3,400 dedicated employees [in the corporation] who help maintain our mission of providing health care to everyone regardless of their ability to pay."
Comments about this story? HFlores@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
