At long last, NUMC sees some heroes

Joye Brown

July 21, 2006

Let's say you want to mess with the Roosevelt School District. You have to get past State Assemb. Earlene Hooper and State Sen. Charles Fuschillo.

Got a problem with veterans? Forget it. Their champion is State Sen. Michael Balboni.

What about children with disabilities on Long Island, or anywhere in New York State? Not happening. A Humvee couldn't upend their advocate, Assemb. Harvey Weisenberg.

And Nassau University Medical Center? Who leaps tall buildings to defend the only semi-public institution that serves Long Island's poor, elderly and uninsured?

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That question, five years back, went to Richard Turan, who was then the institution's chief operating officer.

His answer: Nobody.

The question came again when the just-departed Daniel Kane took over, just two years ago.

The answer, again: Nobody.

To be fair, Hooper and State Sen. Kemp Hannon have been working, quietly, for the hospital. And Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, with the county legislature and the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state panel overseeing county finances, have been working to keep it financially healthy.

But Nassau Health Care Corp. - which runs the hospital, the A. Holly Patterson geriatric center and a string of community health-care centers - hasn't had a vociferous public champion since 1999, when the county sold it to the corporation to plug an $82 million hole in the budget.

That changed yesterday, for the first time in six years, when an array of high-powered officials very publicly joined the fight to right the fiscally ailing corporation.

Hannon, the state legislature's BMOC for health-care issues, was on hand for a news conference announcing actions that will bring millions of state dollars to the cash-starved corporation.

So was Assemb. Thomas DiNapoli, one of Albany's most effective lawmakers. They were joined by Hooper, Weisenberg and Assemb. Charles Lavine. Sen. Dean Skelos, head of the Long Island delegation, sent a representative, too.

The high-powered crew, a rarity in these parts, brought out physicians, department heads, nurses, administrators and maintenance staff.

"We've been demoralized for a long time," one employee told me after seeing the unexpected gaggle of elected officials. "To us, this is important. We don't get this a lot."

That's an understatement.

Since 1999, the corporation has had five chief executives. It's been slammed with ethical violations, sexual harassment claims, rape charges and allegations of missing organs. There also were reports of big raises, expensive cars and too-rich severance packages for departing executives.

No wonder the place, until yesterday, at least, seemed radioactive to public officials.

Yesterday, four Nassau County legislators joined state lawmakers and others at the hospital, but I won't - in fact, refuse to - list them here.

That's because Nassau's legislature has yet to rescind its decision to reappoint Bobby Kumar to the corporation's board - despite the fact that Kumar generated a scandal of his own by admitting he had faked his own kidnapping.

Still, even the worst of its scandals can't obscure one fact: NUMC provides needed care. It's essential it survives, and excels.

But for that, the corporation needs, and deserves, real champions - the kind who will work, no matter what, to get it there.

joye.brown@newsday.com