Probe NUMC foundation's spending, strengthen its future

More than a year after the state took over the governance of Nassau University Medical Center, the safety net hospital still can’t fully escape the corruption, patronage and self-dealing of its recent past.

But Gov. Kathy Hochul’s promised fresh start can’t be achieved without understanding what went wrong and what must change.

The recent Newsday news department investigation into NUMC’s nonprofit arms, the Nassau Health Care Foundation and the NuHealth Foundation, provides a good lesson. The analysis determined that the Nassau Health Care Foundation spent more than $150,000 on parties, from staff gatherings at wine bars to event sponsorship where former interim chief executive Megan Ryan received awards.

That spending does not seem to be in line with the Nassau Health Care Foundation’s mission “to support, maintain and otherwise benefit and be responsive to the needs and objectives of” NUMC and its affiliated nursing home, A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility.

Also disturbing is the bizarre, circular process that led the public benefit corporation overseeing NUMC to fund the Nassau Health Care Foundation, which in turn donated money to the hospital’s other nonprofit arm, NuHealth, which then sent funds back to NUMC and A. Holly Patterson. Why?

Those practices have ended but the record is troubling and warrants further investigation.

The hospital’s new management team and governing board must now assess the current status of both foundations. As NUMC officials continue their broad evaluation of what the medical center should look like going forward, they should determine how the hospital system’s nonprofit arm should support it.

A hospital foundation is an important vehicle for fundraising that can support the work of the medical center. That became clear when NUMC utilized its foundation after former board chairman Stuart Rabinowitz last year secured a $1 million anonymous donation, which was allocated for new equipment to support women’s health. It’ll be up to NUMC chief executive Thomas Stokes, board chairman Richard Kessel and their teams to develop a vision for a foundation that can attract outside donors, bring in significant funds, and raise the profile of both the foundation and the hospital system itself. That should be a priority.

Future fundraising could make a difference for the financially constrained NUMC and its nursing home; there’s enormous potential in naming opportunities and other donation strategies, which can serve as catalysts for innovation. It’s no secret that clinical quality and the patient experience at NUMC can be improved. And there are certainly generous philanthropists who may be interested in assisting an underserved patient population and a public hospital system in the middle of a massive turnaround effort.

Establishing a successful fundraising operation requires a singular, robust, well-run foundation with strong leadership, stringent oversight and defined purposes and goals. The hospital’s past problems should serve as a warning, with a simple message. NUMC’s foundation must serve NUMC.