Little seems clear about an NUMC-North Shore pact

If there's one thing that is clear about the status of an expanded agreement between NuHealth and North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, it is that it's unclear.

A member of NuHealth's board of directors said the panel is divided about deepening Nassau University Medical Center's ties with North Shore-LIJ. Meanwhile, the head of North Shore-LIJ insisted there is no formal "proposed agreement" to expand the relationship.

NuHealth's board is expected to receive a consultant's report Monday on extending its clinical connection with North Shore-LIJ and discuss it in executive session. Since 2005, NuHealth, which includes the public hospital, has had a loose affiliation with the regional hospital giant that has provided NUMC with specialists in areas such as pediatrics, radiology and cardiology. The association was to end in June but was extended until June 2011.

Expanding the relationship became a public issue last week when Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos released a letter detailing 14 objections to a draft agreement between the two hospital systems. He did not provide the document itself.

But North Shore-LIJ chief executive Michael Dowling said Friday that the two hospital systems were still discussing ways to extend their relationship and were not close to finalizing an agreement. "There is no single proposed agreement," he said. "I don't know what document they are referring to."

Concerns by union

He also denied claims by Jerry Laricchiuta, president of Civil Service Employees Association's Local 830, that an expanded affiliation would mean the end of the public hospital.

"To be further affiliated with North Shore-LIJ is another step in the direction that some day the hospital will be taken over by a private entity," Laricchiuta said. "What is going to happen to the public mission?"

Laricchiuta, whose 3,800 members have been without a contract with NuHealth for more than 10 months, also decried the "lack of transparency."

"This is a big move into a private network and there's no public scrutiny at all," he said.

Dowling said that his goals were "to protect the safety net and help NUMC get better, provide better services and enhance its reputation."

"This is not about privatizing NUMC," he said. "This is a community mission. It's the right thing to do."

Nor was there any attempt to hide anything, he said. Despite all the furor, he said, "nobody called us" to discuss any proposed agreement.

Board reportedly divided

Neither NuHealth chief executive Arthur Gianelli nor board chairman Craig Rizzo would comment. But a NuHealth director, Dr. Rose Guercia, said she believed the 18-member board was divided. "Some of the board supports going with North Shore and some of them have reservations," she said.

Guercia said she favors enhancing ties. "I'm very comfortable with the quality of care and with our experience with them over the past five years," she said.

She said she was not worried that NUMC would lose its mission to care for poorer patients.

Maragos said that "in principle" he didn't have an objection to a closer NUMC affiliation with North Shore-LIJ. He said his concern was what North Shore-LIJ's role would be in management of the hospital and with an apparent conflict of interest if Gianelli also became an employee of North Shore-LIJ, which he said was stipulated in the draft agreement.

Nassau Legislator Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow), whose district includes NUMC, said it was "premature to pass any kind of judgment" on an affiliation. But she said the county should scrutinize any agreement to ensure that NUMC's public hospital status is preserved.

The creation in 1997 of the public benefit corporation removed NUMC, the A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility and five health centers from Nassau County control. Still, the county pays NuHealth $18 million a year to help treat the uninsured and had a $19.5 million contract this year to care for county jail inmates.