Laura Curran names Edward Farbenblum as NuHealth board chairman

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran announced Monday she had picked Edward Farbenblum, a business owner and operator of 18 nursing homes, to chair the board that runs Nassau University Medical Center.

Farbenblum, 38, succeeds Robert Detor, who resigned May 28 as chairman of the board of NuHealth board after denouncing trustees for failing to institute significant reforms.

NuHealth is the public benefit corporation that runs NUMC, Nassau's only public hospital, and the A. Holly Paterson nursing home in Uniondale.

The health care system has struggled with persistent operating deficits and leadership turnover.

Curran appointed Farbenblum to the board in February, and reappointed him May 28, when she also named him as board chairman. His term as a trustee ends May 1, 2026.

Farbenblum, of Woodsburgh Village, is chief executive officer of The McGuire Group, VestraCare, and RCA/Absolut Care, according to his resume.

His businesses manage 18 skilled nursing homes with 3,200 beds. Seventeen homes are in New York, primarily upstate, and another is in Warren, Mich., he said.

In an interview with Newsday on Monday, Farbenblum suggested he would chart a different course than Detor's.

Detor had warned repeatedly that NUMC was in fiscal crisis and would run out of cash in 2021.

In his resignation letter to Curran, a Democrat seeking reelection in November, Detor said he could, "no longer align my service on the board with my professional, moral and ethical standards."

In March, a consultant's report commissioned by the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state board that controls NuHealth and Nassau County finances, said NuHealth needed to take dramatic action including closure of the NUMC emergency room, reduction of hospital staff from 3,400 to about 300 and sale of the nursing home.

Farbenblum said the report, "came with a certain bias. NIFA isn't looking at the totality of health care needs in the county; it's looking exclusively at financial viability. I think it took as a foregone conclusion that the hospital wasn't viable, and then made recommendations off of that. I think it's not intuitively obvious that the hospital is not viable."

Farbenblum continued: "The report too heavily discounted the fact that we're an essential function in the community that provides health care for a population that wouldn't be served but for our existence."

NIFA Chairman Adam Barsky said an email Monday: "There was no bias or questioning of the necessity of the safety net aspect of the hospital services. The simple fact is that the hospital is insolvent and will run out of money in due time unless actions are taken."

Hospital officials have tried to downplay fiscal dangers, noting that NuHealth won $300 million in aid through the federal CARES Act and has requested $28 million in reimbursement for COVID-19 expenses from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Farbenblum said he would assess "every silo within the hospital," but declined to comment on divisions that may be "worth shedding."

He said NuHealth, "suffered from a lack of continuity in leadership for some time both in the executive class and the directorship, and chairmanship, and I think that's been the largest impediment to real progress."

Farbenblum said he would press the state Department of Health to approve a catheterization lab for NUMC, seek to build out ambulatory care centers and improve relations with the Long Island Federally Qualified Health Centers Inc., a nonprofit network of community health centers.

Farbenblum said he had been "been active in Democratic politics for some years." He contributed $5,000 to the Nassau County Democratic Committee in 2019, according to state campaign finance reports.

The reports show no donations from Farbenblum to Curran.

Dr. Anthony Boutin, NuHealth's chief executive and president, said in a statement: "Ed Farbenblum's expertise and experience in the health care community will bring great insight and support at a time of need" to NuHealth.

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.