Struggling NYC hospital pays brass fat salaries despite staffing, money woes

Maimonides Medical Heart in Brooklyn — which is hemorrhaging tens of tens of millions of dollars and dealing with complaints of extreme understaffing and a decline in care — is paying its CEO and 5 different high medical brass seven-figure salaries, The Put up has discovered.

Maimonides’ CEO Kenneth Gibbs noticed his compensation skyrocket from $1.8 million to $3.2 million from 2019 to 2020, when the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the power, in keeping with not-for-profit monetary data filed with the IRS.

Sources additionally questioned Gibbs’ presence on the hospital in the course of the pandemic — he was recorded as voting absentee from his residence in Previous Chatham, NY within the upstate Berkshires in November 2020, not from his Central Park West house.

In the meantime, Jacob Shani, chief of coronary heart surgical procedure acquired $3.5 million; Patrick Borgen, division of surgical procedure, $2 million; Greg Ribakove, chair of cardiothoracic surgical procedure, $1.8 million; Robert Frankel, director of interventional cardiology, $1.7 million; and Alex Shaknovich, heart specialist, $1.7 million, data present.

“It seems horrible,” one hospital industry supply mentioned.

Maimonides Medical Center
Maimonides mentioned it's working “tirelessly” to take care of high quality medical care “whereas addressing workers turnover.”
Getty Photos

Maimonides is Brooklyn’s largest hospital serving Borough Park, Midwood and different sections of southern Brooklyn. It delivers extra infants than any hospital within the metropolis.

A Maimonides spokesperson admitted that the hospital is paying these giant salaries and advantages regardless of experiencing “depressed inpatient and outpatient quantity in addition to elevated prices, leading to a internet lack of $64.6 million via Q2 2021, and an working finances projection of a $19.5 million loss for 2022.”

State data present the variety of Maimonides sufferers handled and discharged dropped from 35,000 in 2019 to 30,000 in 2020.

“As Brooklyn’s largest hospital, we're dedicated to serving these in want throughout these attempting and unpredictable occasions,” the hospital rep mentioned.

In the meantime, even Maimonides’ busy birthing unit is understaffed, the nurses’ union mentioned.

“With 4 couplets [mother and baby] I'm able to present care to each mom and child. Sadly, on the night time shift, I've a caseload of 6 couplets. That’s why I name the RN staffing ‘very poor’ within the unit,” mentioned Maimonides child unit nurse Michelle Williams.

“To take care of all of the moms and infants, we typically have to separate the work. With couplets cut up up, I've ended up with as many as 15 infants assigned to me. That is unsuitable, as a result of we run a threat of not getting all needed care to the infants,” she added.

Maimonides Medical Center
The variety of Maimonides sufferers handled and discharged dropped from 35,000 in 2019 to 30,000 in 2020.
Getty Photos

The New York State Nurses Affiliation held a rally exterior the hospital final week, accusing the hospital of harmful understaffing.

On the similar time, sources in Borough Park mentioned extra residents with means at the moment are going for deliberate surgical procedures at hospitals in Manhattan slightly than Maimonides, citing a decline in high quality.

Maimonides acquired solely a 1 star ranking out of 5 in the newest federal authorities report card for affected person satisfaction report card and a pair of out of 5 or total care.

By way of a spokesperson, the hospital defended Gibbs’ compensation and insisted the huge soar was the results of a reporting requirement and mentioned his wage is “on par with counterparts” and is “nicely under” high canines on the metropolis’s largest public hospitals.

“Ken’s wage didn't improve from 2019 to 2020; the rise in compensation reported on the 2020 Kind 990 displays a one-time cost pursuant to the phrases of a supplemental govt retirement plan that occurred as a result of his vesting within the plan after 5 years of employment,” the spokesperson mentioned.

The hospital rep insisted Gibbs, whose most important deal with is Central Park West, was hands-on and at Maimonides in the course of the worst of the pandemic.

“Ken voted by way of absentee poll primarily based on his secondary deal with in Previous Chatham however has lived in New York Metropolis and labored on the hospital all through the pandemic, together with 7 days every week in the course of the top of the Spring 2020 surge,” the rep insisted.

Maimonides Medical Center
The New York State Nurses Affiliation held a rally exterior the hospital final week, accusing the hospital of harmful understaffing.
Paul Martinka

A supply mentioned he voted from his second deal with to assist Democrat Antonio Delgado get elected to Congress within the Hudson Valley area.

Maimonides additionally defended the seven-figure pay for its high docs, saying it's “one of many high rated coronary heart and vascular care facilities within the nation.”

“Offering that care is barely doable via recruiting world-class physicians, and we're dedicated to retaining the perfect clinicians doable, together with docs, nurses and different medical professionals, to serve the Brooklyn group,” the hospital spokesperson mentioned.

In its assertion, Maimonides additionally mentioned it's working “tirelessly” to take care of high quality medical care “whereas addressing workers turnover and industry-wide shortages associated to the pandemic.”

Maimonides mentioned it has employed 140 new nurses over the previous 4 months “to mitigate any staffing shortfalls” and enlisted a number of new “nurse educators” to coach and assist the brand new staffers.

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