NUMC Chairman abruptly resigns, calls for probe, after board balks (UPDATED)

                                                                                                                             

                                                                                

Robert Detor (From Linked in)

Robert Detor, appointed chairman of the Nassau University Medical Center by Nassau County Executive Laura Curran in Jan. 2020, submitted his resignation letter yesterday, effective Friday.

Detor said he cannot accept the outcome of NUMC's board deliberations of an event he does not identify,  though he says it was documented by an independent review and "issues of serious concern were identified and presented to the board."

He wrote: "It has become clear to me I can no longer align my service on the board with my professional, moral and ethical standards." 

He  recommends that Curran ask the state health department to review "not only the current circumstances but the overall condition of the corporation's governance."

"Over the years the governing board has failed the corporation," he said. Nuhealth is a public benefit corporation that operates the community based hospital located in East Meadow and its associated facilities.

Earlier this month, the NUMC board met and went into a longer than two-hour executive session, closed to the public, to discuss "personnel" after the regional head of the CSEA, Jerry Laricchiuta,  spoke publicly in support of Anthony Boutin, the black president and chief medical officer of Nuhealth.

The talk at that time was that Detor and Curran-backed members of the board wanted to replace Boutin with John Donnelly, who had served as a deputy to former Democratic County Executive Thomas Suozzi. 

Donnelly last November had been appointed chief operating officer of NuHealth for a salary of $475,000 although members complained that they hadn't even been given a resume for him. Donnelly, a longtime friend of Nassau Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs, was the chief talent officer at the law firm of Jackson Lewis and also served on  Curran's transition team after her election in 2017.

Replacing a black CEO doctor with a white administrator after a national year of protests and riots over racism following the George Floyd death seemed like an odd move for a mostly white board. Especially in a year when Curran, a Democrat, is running for re-election. 

But nothing happened.

The board came out of that May 13 executive session and adjourned without taking action or explanation.

UPDATE: Laricchiuta, who has publicly accused Detor and the Curran administration of trying to close the public hospital that employs many union members, said in response to Detor's resignation:

"We're dancing in the streets today."

Laricchuita added, "Boutin is a good guy. He's not a politician...He understands that entire hospital. And he is a doctor."

That May 13 meeting followed another contentious session where some board members complained that Detor was making decisions about how the board operates without consulting them.

Detor succeeded George Tsunis, Curran's initial pick as hospital chairman. She objected when the board appointed Boutin as acting chairman when Tsunis resigned, but Detor, a longtime health care executive, then appointed Boutin as chief medical officer in a game of musical chair appointments that  seemed to make no sense.

The medical center has experienced deep financial trouble for years. The county "sold" it to the public benefit corporation in 1999 as a way to raise money for the county's deficit ridden budget.

Obviously there is more to come.  Here is Detor's letter: