The Nassau University Medical Center’s board of directors unanimously approved the appointment of Great Neck native Donald Ashkenase to be its chief operating officer and executive vice president on April 18, putting him in a position to lead the hospital’s restructuring plan.
Ashkenase brings with him experience at Montefiore Medical Center as its executive vice president, chief financial officer at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.
He was also the chairman of Healthfirst, first founded in 1993 with the goal of providing low-cost health insurance in the New York City area, for 15 years.
“I would hope to be here long enough to facilitate the transformation of the economics of the medical center,” Ashkenase, also the vice president of the Great Neck Board of Education, said on Thursday, noting that this would mean the ability to help more people.
Ashkenase said this would entail boosting the “case mix” of the hospital, expanding the ambulance care delivery system and “have it be a bridge to growing our managed care business.”
Ashkenase was also appointed by County Executive Laura Curran to be a non-voting member to the board of the New Horizon Counseling Center, a non-profit behavioral health organization, earlier this year.
The NHCC, in turn, approved Ashkenase to be an executive committee member of the Nassau Queens Performing Provider System, comprised of Northwell Health, Nassau University Medical Center and the Catholic Health System.
This organization oversees the delivery system reform incentive payment, or DSRIP, program, which aims to restructure the delivery of healthcare by reinvesting in Medicaid and reduce avoidable hospital visits.
“There’s not equal access to healthcare and the poor sometimes get denied the quality of care that we should be providing everybody,” Ashkenase said. “I just want to make sure NUMC is there to meet the needs of the people who need it the most, whether they have insurance or not.”
The move comes as Curran appointee George Tsunis, the chairman of NUHealth, the public benefit corporation running the East Meadow-based facility, has honed in on the hospital’s contracting and purchasing practices.
Since taking the position, the board has moved to purge more than $2 million worth of high administrative positions, establish a contract review committee and stop officials from taking business trips to the Cayman Islands.
When asked about this, Ashkenase said these are “real decisions that have been made that save us money,” which in turn are “complementary” to improving the hospital’s ability to provide service.
