Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • ESG: THE IMPLEMENTATION IMPERATIVE
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Digital Health
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Transformation
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Unwell in America
  • Opinion
    • Bold Moves
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Vital Signs Blog
    • From the Editor
  • Events & Awards
    • Awards
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Webinars
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
    • Top 25 Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
      • - Leaders to Watch
    • Women in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Women Leaders
      • - Women to Watch
    • Digital Health Transformation Summit
    • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - Digital Health
    • - Future of Staffing
    • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
  • Multimedia
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Video Series - The Check Up
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
  • Data Center
    • Data Center Home
    • Hospital Financials
    • Staffing & Compensation
    • Quality & Safety
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Data Archive
    • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
    • Surveys
    • Data Points
  • MORE+
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Newsletters
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Governance
July 27, 2022 07:55 PM

Nursing home exec linked with 'Save Maimonides' offered millions to control hospital's board

Crain's New York Business
Maya Kaufman
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    maimonides medical center.jpg
    David Grossman/Alamy Stock Photo

    Maimonides Medical Center

    Earlier this month, a group started tabling outside Maimonides Medical Center with the battle cry “save Maimonides.” They beckoned passersby to sign a petition, started four weeks ago by a group calling itself Brooklyn Health Initiative, with the stated goal of “restoring integrity and excellence to our cherished neighborhood hospital.”

    Their message is that the Borough Park hospital’s quality of care is deteriorating due to understaffing, mismanagement and neglect—all while its chief executive, Kenneth Gibbs, saw his compensation rise from $1.8 million in 2019 to $3.2 million in 2020.

    Indeed two websites, set up by the group this month to solicit stories on employees’ and patients’ experiences at Maimonides, have already yielded hundreds of complaints of horrific conditions at the community hospital, an affiliate of Northwell Health.

    Neither website identifies who launched Save Maimonides. What they also do not say is that behind the self-proclaimed grassroots campaign is a well-funded initiative running on a team of paid canvassers and aimed at reforming the hospital by ousting and replacing its leadership.

    One of the people who appears to be linked to the initiative, nursing home magnate Eliezer "Louis" Scheiner, had tried to do just that in 2020, when hospital executives met with him as part of an effort to drive more philanthropic contributions and build out its board of trustees.

    “In 2019 and 2020, hospital leadership engaged an individual regarding philanthropic support for the hospital,” Gene Keilin, chairman of the Maimonides board of trustees, said. “In exchange for philanthropy, he proposed to name or approve a group of people to serve on the Board. The group would form a majority and effectively control the hospital. When this offer was made, it was declined.”

    Scheiner said he would arrange tens of millions of dollars in philanthropic support in exchange for control of the board, according to senior hospital officials familiar with the matter.

    Gibbs, Maimonides’ CEO, declined to comment.

    In response to Crain’s request to interview Scheiner, his spokesman, Mercury Public Affairs president John Gallagher, said he was traveling and unavailable.

    Gallagher confirmed that Scheiner met with Gibbs and Keilin about helping the hospital and that he pledged tens of millions of dollars but claimed that they did make an agreement, contrary to Keilin’s statement that the offer was declined.

    “Mr. Scheiner and Mr. Gibbs struck an agreement where Louis, in his capacity as a philanthropist, would help raise and donate tens of millions of dollars, and recruit the most talented board members and staff, to try and turn-around the hospital,” Gallagher said in a statement. “In return, Ken Gibbs agreed that the failing hospital would institute desperately needed reforms. Mr. Scheiner donated a considerable amount of time, money and resources only to find out that Mr. Gibbs had no intention of keeping those promised reforms.”

    A Maimonides spokeswoman confirmed that Scheiner has donated to the hospital through his private foundation, TL Foundation, but would not disclose the date or amount, citing hospital protocol. The donation does not appear to be listed in the foundation’s most recent tax filings.

    Gallagher said Scheiner walked away from trying to fix the hospital one year ago and that he is not involved in or contributing to the Save Maimonides effort, although he agrees with it. But an ad in the July 13 edition of Mishpacha, a Haredi weekly magazine, which says “we are now taking action to demand the hospital improve conditions and save lives,” lists Scheiner as a signatory using a nickname, Lazer, according to a copy reviewed by Crain’s.

    Scheiner owns stakes in at least 24 nursing homes across the country, including three in New York, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Some are among the worst-rated in their states, The Intercept reported in 2020. He has poured at least $800,000 into political campaigns in recent years, including $750,000 to a super PAC for former President Donald Trump in 2019, federal campaign records show.

    Since it emerged several weeks ago, the Save Maimonides initiative has magnified a multitude of grievances with a hospital that largely serves lower-income patients on Medicaid and Medicare and has struggled to stay out of the red—even with financial support, staffing and expertise from Northwell, the state’s largest health care provider, under their affiliation agreement.

    Download Modern Healthcare’s app to stay informed when industry news breaks.

    Mendy Reiner, the group’s co-chair, said conditions at the hospital came onto his radar about a year ago, but he chalked them up to the pandemic. He decided to formalize the campaign after the stories persisted, but he said others in the group are reluctant to go public because they have been threatened indirectly or directly.

    “I realized it’s not Covid—it’s the hospital that’s broken, and we need to do something about it,” he said in an interview.

    Reiner said the goal is to collect more information and stories about the hospital. He said he also wants to see more government oversight.

    Mordy Getz, the chief executive of urgent care center LevelUp MD and a self-identified vocal supporter of Save Maimonides, said the problems stem from hospital leadership and that the group wants to see more active and experienced members appointed to the board of trustees, in addition to increased governmental oversight.

    “This is not about the nurses, the doctors; it’s about the leadership,” he said.

    The group cites stories like that of Blima Marcus, a Borough Park resident whose grandmother was hospitalized at Maimonides and died there earlier this month.

    Marcus, a nurse practitioner who is not part of Save Maimonides, said her grandmother had diabetes but waited six to seven hours before someone checked blood sugar levels. A nurse on her grandmother’s floor, a general medical/surgical unit, told Marcus that nurses were handling eight to nine patients each—a ratio that Marcus called dangerous.

    “The nursing care is egregious because the hospital treats them egregiously,” she said

    The hospital, they note, is rated poorly for patient experience. It has a “D” rating from the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit whose ratings are considered reliable in the industry.

    It is unclear who is bankrolling the group’s substantial outreach efforts, but Reiner said they have raised roughly $500,000 from various sources. The group has a YouTube channel with several videos asking viewers to “help us restore our neighborhood’s pride.” It has placed ads in Hebrew-language news outlets and made logoed caps and t-shirts. Stu Loeser, a prominent communications strategist with his own firm and the press secretary to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is handling the group’s public relations.

    That financing is also going toward canvassers: Save Maimonides has been recruiting workers to hand out fliers and “spread awareness” about the movement in Borough Park and Midwood, listings show.

    “For a lot of people you may be the first person to tell them about our movement, therefore, we ask that you’re someone who is interested in community outreach and the betterment of Brooklyn,” reads a Craigslist ad posted last week, which offered $15 an hour.

    Screenshot

    A screenshot taken by Crain's of a "Save Maimonides" Craigslist ad.

    One canvasser told Crain’s that he has been paid $20 per hour for the last three weeks to hand out flyers outside the hospital.

    “They threw me in there without really knowing what’s going on,” he said.

    The canvasser said he knew nothing about Maimonides beforehand, but he became sympathetic to the stories he heard about understaffing and patients dying at the hospital.

    “Of course we're paying organizers!” Loeser, the Save Maimonides spokesman, said in a statement. “Mendy [Reiner] is raising money so individuals can take time away from work or family responsibilities to help fight for people whose voices haven't been heard!”

    Union officials say the coalition is exploiting their efforts to secure safer staffing levels at the hospital. The New York State Nurses Association held a rally in February to highlight severe understaffing and poor working conditions at Maimonides, but the union has distanced itself from Save Maimonides.

    “This group has nothing to do with NYSNA, and they’ve never been a part of our union struggles,” Nancy Hagans, the union’s president and a Maimonides nurse, said in a statement. “Their co-opting of our fights for ratios and safe working conditions is an insult to our union's mission.”

    Maimonides leadership acknowledged to Crain’s that the hospital is struggling but said improvements are underway. Stephanie Baez, a spokeswoman, said the hospital hired 200 nurses in the last nine months.

    “We know we have work to do to enhance the patient experience and we have a number of initiatives well underway to address this – including a major modernization of our Emergency Department that will double its size, dramatically improving the experience for patients and families,” Baez said in a statement.

    It also has a potential financial lifeline in Northwell. The hospital has in recent years benefited from a $125 million unsecured loan agreement with Northwell, public records show, and could see more direct financial support if Northwell advances their relationship and becomes its active parent—in other words, acquiring the hospital.

    As part of the affiliation agreement, Maimonides is liable to pay a $31 million break-up fee if Northwell does not become its sole member and/or parent, public records show.

    Baez defended Maimonides’ clinical outcomes but said the hospital strives to improve and is introducing new programs and facilities even despite a challenging financial environment and industry-wide staff shortages.

    “We know we have work to do to improve performance when it comes to patient satisfaction, and we are actively doing that work,” she said.

    This story first appeared in our sister publication, Crain's New York Business.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    Copy of finance_arrows_down_WEB_i_i_i.jpg
    Cano Health directors resign, call for removal of CEO
    Most Popular
    1
    More healthcare organizations at risk of credit default, Moody's says
    2
    Centene fills out senior executive team with new president, COO
    3
    SCAN, CareOregon plan to merge into the HealthRight Group
    4
    Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan unveils big push that lets physicians take on risk, reap rewards
    5
    Bright Health weighs reverse stock split as delisting looms
    Sponsored Content
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Digital Health
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Unwell in America
    • Opinion
      • Bold Moves
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • Vital Signs Blog
      • From the Editor
    • Events & Awards
      • Awards
        • Nominate/Eligibility
        • 100 Most Influential People
        • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
        • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
        • Excellence in Governance
        • Health Care Hall of Fame
        • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
        • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
        • Top 25 Innovators
        • Diversity in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
          • - Leaders to Watch
        • Women in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Women Leaders
          • - Women to Watch
      • Conferences
        • Digital Health Transformation Summit
        • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
        • Leadership Symposium
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
      • Galas
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - Digital Health
        • - Future of Staffing
        • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
      • Webinars
    • Multimedia
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Video Series - The Check Up
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • Data Center
      • Data Center Home
      • Hospital Financials
      • Staffing & Compensation
      • Quality & Safety
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Data Archive
      • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
      • Surveys
      • Data Points
    • MORE+
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Newsletters
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing