For 17 years I was President and CEO of a safety net hospital. TrumpCare will “disinsure” twenty million+ people and devastate the hospitals we all depend on.

August 23, 2017

A little background…. I was appointed President and CEO of Jersey City Medical Center (JCMC) in 1989, one year after JCMC had been converted to not-for-profit governance after a long and colorful history as a public hospital (including bankruptcy protection from 1982 to 1985). JCMC was and still is Hudson County’s (500,000+ residents) regional referral

On July 4th as we respect and admire hospital staff members who are working 24/7, it is interesting to look at hospital care during the Revolutionary War

August 23, 2017

From 1967 to 1970, during the Vietnam War, I served first as a 2nd Lieutenant and Chief Administrative Officer of the 4th Casualty Staging Flight attached to Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center, Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. We received combat casualties still in battlefield bandages, often within 24 hours of injury, and either admitted

American College of Physicians Says Hate Crimes are Public Health Issue

August 16, 2017

At a recent meeting of their Board of Regents, the American College of Physicians (ACP) adopted a new policy statement recognizing hate crimes as a public health issue. “It is imperative that physicians, and all people, speak out against hate and hate crimes and against those who foster or perpetrate it, as was seen in

Let’s prohibit Congressmen from insurance reimbursement for Prostate Screening and Treatment

March 29, 2017

Living in the rarified world of VIP access to health care maybe it’s time for a non-randomized clinical trial, with Congressman being in a study group where they have to pay out-of-pocket fee-for-service with no reimbursement, for prostate screening and treatment. So they can experience what life was like for 20 million Americans before Obamacare.

Stop the name games! University hospitals and regional medical centers should live up to their billing *

July 4, 2016

Remember when a hospital was just a hospital, and its reputation spoke for itself? Now we have a plethora of self named healthcare institutions such as clinics, community hospitals, institutes, medical centers, national hospitals, specialty hospitals, and teaching hospitals. My home state of New Jersey, for example, started with one children’s hospital in Newark, followed

Chief Fourth of July Officer

June 27, 2016

My first experience with hospital administrative titles was in 1967 as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force assigned to Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center in San Antonio. The Hospital Commander was a physician Brigadier General. That was the only title/ rank that mattered. Returning to NYC in 1972 a typical hospital had a President