Secrecy at LICH

Reported negotiations to merge LICH with SUNY seem to proceed in utmost secrecy. There are reports that the medical staff, in particular, is upset because important medical decisions seem to be in negotiation without input from the professional staff.

Denis Hamill of the Daily News has a fulsome report. To read it, click here.

Anyone in Charge ?

Mr. John D. Wren
Business Week

Mr. Stanley Brezenoff

The Brooklyn Paper/Tom Callan

The law requires a board of a not-for-profit corporation to be in overall charge. No matter how many executives and other employees there may be, it is the Board, and nobody else, that is charged with the fiduciary duty to preserve and nurture the organization. In the case of LICH, that would be the Board of Regents, whose chairman is Mr. John D. Wren.

Mr. Brezenoff, who has made all the policy statements more or less on his own, has certainly given the impression that it is he, and nobody else, who is in charge. But, at least in form, he is but a paid servant of LICH, with but one seat on the Board. Where in all this is the legally-responsible Board ? Where is Mr. Wren ? What does Mr. Wren have to say about the important policy decisions that lie ahead for LICH ?

Yes, Mr. B., there is so a Plan B

Not long ago, on September 22 of this year, Continuum boss Mr. Stanley Brezenoff pounded a table for emphasis and, he thought, laid down the law: I will cut out obstetrics at LICH, and, for good measure, I will cut pediatrics as well. That is my plan. There is no plan B.

Well, local officials, local activists, the medical staff of LICH, and many others organized to tell the State government that LICH should remain whole. And what do you know, the State listened, and decreed that yes, Mr. B., there is so a Plan B: the hospital will retain the services that Mr. B. had decided he would not.

For the text of the NYC Department of Health decision, click here.

Mr. Brezenoff Explains

As I write, Congress and the Administration are trying to find a way out of the current financial crisis. To many an innocent bystander, it was amazing to discover that the CEO's of the most mismanaged corporations took multi-million dollar salaries. How is this relevant to LICH ? Read on.

This last Monday (Sept. 22) was a remarkable day for LICH. The public was invited to a meeting at LICH, sponsored by Community Board Six, that featured a spirited, forceful address by Stanley Brezenoff. Mr. Brezenoff is the President and CEO of Continuum Health Partners, the non-profit management organization that is responsible for the executive functions of the hospital.

Mr. Brezenoff was blunt in what he had to say: 1) LICH is in a severe financial crisis (because there aren't enough patients); it is financially moribund. 2) It is my plan to cut out obstetrics and pediatrics, because these services lose money. Those steps will revive this near-death patient. 3) This is my plan. There is no plan B. Take it or leave it.

Mr. Brezenoff's remarks and those of his questioners are well reported on the website of the (dissident) medical staff. This site, highly critical of Mr. B. and his management, needs to be consulted by anyone interested in the hospital.

I sat in the audience, taking it all in, but my thoughts were on matters that nobody mentioned, although they had, indeed, been mentioned by the dissident medical staff before: if LICH is in such dire straights, why are the executive salaries so high ? According to the Daily News, LICH's doctors want cuts in executive pay.

Like everything else, executive salaries are relative. This blog has previously reported on the salary of the recently-resigned LICH president Ms. Rita Battles (whose name, curiously, was never mentioned at this meeting), and also, for comparative purposes, the salary of Alan D. Aviles, the man who runs the city hospital system. (see my postings of November 14, 2007 and others.) In brief, while Ms. Battles was paid approximately $700,000, Mr. Aviles, responsible for a far more extensive operation, earned but $291,000.

Continuum Health Partners manages several other hospitals in addition to LICH, so Mr. Brezenoff's salary, presumably, is not paid by LICH alone. Still, it is an interesting figure. Now like all other not-for-profits, Continuum is required to report its top salaries to the IRS on form IRS990. These reports are publicly available online, for instance on the site of GuideStar.

People should more often examine these reports about the non profits that they support. In the case of Continuum, the latest report covers the year 2006. In that year, Mr. Brezenoff was paid a total of $1,442,412, or, roughly, just about five times the sum paid to Mr. Aviles, whose job, remember, is far more extensive than Mr. B's.