NYC Health & Hospitals/Jacobi in the Bronx has seen three top executives vacate their positions in recent weeks, a health system spokesman confirmed in response to a Crain's inquiry.
Jacobi recently replaced its chief executive, chief financial officer and chief medical officer. The timing of the changes was coincidental, according to the spokesman.
William Foley, Jacobi's former chief executive, got a promotion in late February to become senior vice president for acute care at the health system, the organization's top official overseeing the system's 11 hospitals. He reports directly to H+H interim chief executive Stanley Brezenoff.
Foley replaced Richard Gannotta, who accepted a senior executive role at the University of California Irvine Medical Center in Orange, Calif. Following Foley's promotion, Christopher Mastromano, who joined the system in 2011, has became acting chief executive of Jacobi.
Dr. Michael Zinaman became acting chief medical officer taking over for Dr. John Morley, who left the health system last Friday. Zinaman previously was chair of obstetrics, gynecology and women's health at the Jacobi and North Central Bronx campuses.
Ellen Barlis, who has worked at the system since 2007, has taken on senior finance responsibilities after the departure of Jacobi's chief financial officer Kathy Garramone.
Separately, Antonio Martin, the systemwide chief operating officer, plans to leave the health system for a new job, though a spokesman said he is still working at Health + Hospitals.
The leadership changes follow a February Report in the New York Post that said 70 non-clinical workers had been cut despite de Blasio administration promises that the system would not lay off any workers as it tries to avert its path toward a $1.8 billion deficit in fiscal 2020.
When asked whether these departures will have a destabilizing effect on Jacobi, a health system spokesman said: "The public health system is well equipped to handle routine employment transitions, even when a few happen coincidentally in the same facility."
Leadership changes and administrative job cuts have been common across the system lately, said one Jacobi doctor, who declined to be identified in order to maintain a good relationship with management.
The doctor said frontline doctors and nurses have not been fired but some positions are not being filled as the system seeks to trim its workforce through attrition.
"It affects morale," the doctor said. "The nursing staff and physician staff have to pick up the work. It's created more work for rest of us, but we're happy to have jobs."
He said Health + Hospitals staff are closely watching the mayoral election as a leading indicator of what's to come. There is fear that if de Blasio—the mayor who campaigned on trying to save Long Island College Hospital—is defeated, hospital closures and layoffs could be imminent.
"That's a big deal," the doctor said. "If de Blasio, is not re-elected there will be much more instability for Health + Hospitals. He has said he doesn't want to close hospitals."
"Health + Hospitals/Jacobi replaces 3 top execs" originally appeared in Crain's New York Business.