By: Nick Buglione
Prior to joining NYIT in 2001, Ross-Lee was dean of the Osteopathic College at Ohio University from 1993 to 2001, the first black woman to serve as a dean in a U.S. medical school.
As president of the Board of the Association of Academic Health Centers and a member of the board of the National Fund for Medical Education, Ross-Lee has an extensive background in health policy and issues.
On a personal note, she is also the sister of pop music legend Diana Ross.
Eric Krasnoff joined the Pall Corporation in 1975 and has been a key figure in its development into one of the nation's largest industrial companies.
The Pall Corporation is a leading manufacturer of filtration, separation and purification products used in the life sciences and industrial markets.
A graduate of Columbia University, Krasnoff was elected chairman and CEO of Pall in 1994. He is an active community leader, serving as chairman of the National Blood Foundation, and he is a member of the President's Advisory Board of the National Center for Disability Services.
Krasnoff is also a trustee of Long Island University and vice chairman of the American Business Conference.
It didn't take long for County Executive Thomas Suozzi to guarantee that he'll have a strong say in the direction the beleaguered Nassau Health Care Corporation takes in the wake of President Richard Turan's resignation.
Just one day after Turan announced he was stepping down, Suozzi filled two vacancies on the corporation's 15-member board of directors, appointing Eric Krasnoff, chairman and CEO of the Pall Corporation, and Dr. Barbara Ross-Lee, dean of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine.
The appointments will give the county more leverage in implementing the recommendations from its commissioned study, which in January proposed a number of measures aimed at getting the financially strapped NHCC back in the black.
Among other things, the study advised selling the A. Holly Patterson nursing home in Uniondale and moving it to the Nassau University Medical Center campus in East Meadow, and changing NUMC's focus to that of a community hospital. "It will give the county an opportunity to have more influence over hospital operations that we have not had heretofore," Suozzi said. "We believe that this plan is a great blueprint to help save this important institution in the county."
Ensuring the fiscal solvency of the quasi-public benefit corporation, which has lost millions of dollars every year since its creation in 1999, is essential to the county. If the NHCC were to go under, the county would ultimately be responsible for the debt service payments on the $256 million in bonds issued to finance its creation.
The NHCC, which runs seven community clinics in addition to A. Holly Patterson and NUMC, is still in danger of going broke by December if action isn't taken quickly, according to Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman. "It's a difficult time to be in health care," Weitzman said. "Even well-run private hospitals are having difficulty making ends meet."
The board hasn't been able to attend to much business in recent months because quorums haven't been reached, partly because officials haven't appointed new members to take the place of those whose terms have expired.
Suozzi has now filled two of the three appointments he is allotted, noting that state officials still have four more vacancies to fill.
"I think we've taken a big step today," said Lawrence Gottlieb, chairman of the NHCC board of directors. "We all know the board has had trouble reaching quorums."
Once all vacancies are filled, Suozzi proposed that the new board members attend a half-day retreat with the county's senior staff and consultants, with the purpose of orienting them to the job and, perhaps more important, discussing how to implement the independent study's recommendations.
The county executive will also play a key role in finding a replacement for Turan, who resigned June 1, ending a nearly 3 1/2-year stint with the NHCC that was marked by controversy.
Suozzi will be working with the board to hire a new interim president and a permanent leader, he said. He also has the statutory authority to approve any candidate the board might select, he added.
"We are starting today to look for an interim CEO, and we're going to be working closely with the county," Gottlieb said.
Suozzi hopes an interim leader will be selected in the next 30 days, though the time frame for finding a permanent one is less clear.
Gottlieb would not speculate on the terms of Turan's severance package, which he said are still being ironed out. A published report indicated that Turan could be getting as much as $500,000. "It would be wrong for me to negotiate here what I'm attempting to negotiate with him," Gottlieb said.
