{"id":265969,"date":"2026-01-30T20:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T20:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/265969\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T20:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T20:31:08","slug":"new-numc-ceo-envisions-comeback-for-financially-flailing-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/265969\/","title":{"rendered":"New NUMC CEO envisions comeback for financially flailing hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

On his first day as new CEO of Nassau University Medical Center<\/a>, Thomas\u00a0Stokes\u00a0found himself with a blood pressure cuff around his left arm \u2014\u00a0part of a routine physical for all new employees \u2014\u00a0sitting next to a medical assistant eyeing numbers on a monitor, he recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“She took a step back and said\u00a0a prayer for me. Then I saw the number and realized why,” Stokes joked.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

A second reading showed his\u00a0blood pressure was normal, but the\u00a0funny encounter\u00a0was an example of the small interactions he’s had since\u00a0his formal start on Jan.\u00a015,\u00a0when he\u00a0took\u00a0on the task of stabilizing Nassau’s embattled and financially fraught<\/a>\u00a0safety-net health system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stokes, 54, of Center Moriches was chief financial officer at Weill\u00a0Cornell Medicine in Manhattan when in November he was\u00a0tapped to begin an institutional turnaround\u00a0by the new\u00a0board of directors at Nassau Health Care Corporation.\u00a0The public benefit corporation \u2014 more than a billion dollars in debt \u2014 runs the 530-bed\u00a0main\u00a0hospital in East Meadow also operates the\u00a0neighboring\u00a0A. Holly Patterson Nursing Home, county jail inmate care and community health centers.<\/p>\n

It would be no small feat with the health system\u00a0more than $1.4 billion in debt<\/a>, ranking it among the most financially vulnerable in the region.\u00a0The\u00a0hospital\u00a0also houses some of\u00a0the region’s unique medical specialties, such as its approach to treating burn victims, and takes on difficult\u00a0cases other hospitals do not, relying primarily on public insurance like Medicare and Medicaid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

State and local officials, as well as union leaders,\u00a0say Stokes must build\u00a0up trust, show\u00a0a true commitment and shed the political gamesmanship\u00a0that has plagued the institution. Stokes’ hire comes after years of leadership turnover, high-profile lawsuits\u00a0and executive turmoil that culminated in Gov. Kathy Hochul changing state law<\/a> to transfer the governance power away from county lawmakers to state officials.\u00a0He will earn a base salary of $1 million per year (Stokes took a pay cut coming to NUMC) with an annual performance bonus\u00a0of up to $250,000.<\/p>\n

“There are special people that\u00a0exist here and are so dedicated in what they do. They need direction and they need support,” Stokes told Newsday in an exclusive interview. “Let’s ground ourselves in why we entered the health care field to begin with, and remain engaged, and yet run the place like a business. That’s what we need to evolve into.”<\/p>\n

This scale of financial turnaround will take “years not months” and his commitment far exceeds pulling the institution out of the red, Stokes said.\u00a0He began transitioning into his new role weeks before his official start\u00a0and said a lack of data, deferred maintenance to the buildings and low staff morale\u00a0are among his chief concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Raising quality care scores, making sure emergency and disaster readiness plans are updated and renegotiating with private payers are also top of mind, he said. Stokes\u00a0has already begun leveraging his experience in finance and contacts in the private hospital space, tapping seasoned professionals for advice from his previous posts, he said.<\/p>\n

Local roots<\/p>\n

He also said he never abandoned his roots of\u00a0having come from a modest upbringing in Shirley, raised by parents who had once relied on a public health system, which he says makes him more sensitive to the mission of a public hospital. His integrity, financial acumen and his experience with Nassau County government could help him\u00a0navigate the rocky waters ahead, officials say.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stokes comes back to work in Nassau County after having served in the administration of then-County Executive Tom Suozzi, a Democrat,\u00a0first as a consultant who helped streamline the Health and Human Services Department, setting up a system to match eligible residents with various aid programs. He had intended to return to the private sector, he said,\u00a0before Suozzi offered him the post of deputy county executive for operations and finance, where he stayed until 2009.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas<\/p>\n

Thomas Stokes, center, with NuHealth Surgery physician David Parizh, left, and nurse manager Feba Thomas. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin<\/p>\n

He also served as a board member\u00a0of\u00a0the Nassau Interim Finance Authority<\/a>, the county’s\u00a0state-appointed fiscal watchdog.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think he is hitting the ground running and is the right person. He’s got a lot of things he needs to get accomplished, but he’s the person who will turn this ship around,” said NIFA Chairman Richard Kessel, who has known Stokes for about 20 years. “Hopefully the county will work with him.”<\/p>\n

For more than 15 years, Stokes was chief operating officer and chief financial officer in various segments of the Weill Cornell health system, first running its imaging practice, then its physician organization, where he helped navigate\u00a0the complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023,\u00a0Stokes elevated to the role of chief financial officer of the entire medical organization and vice president for finance at Cornell University.<\/p>\n

Like other teaching hospitals, Weill Cornell in April faced a significant loss of federal medical research funding in Trump administration cuts to higher education which resulted in cost-cutting measures. By November, Cornell had reached an agreement with the federal government to have $250 million restored.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Early wins<\/p>\n

Stokes’ plans have been bolstered recently by a significant state cash infusion<\/a> of nearly\u00a0$110 million, which was announced at the first Board meeting he attended.\u00a0The funding includes $82.1 million awarded through the state Department of Health\u2019s Vital Access Provider Assurance Program, designed to help bail out struggling hospitals,\u00a0and $27.5 million in enhanced Medicaid funding formula tied to the COVID-19 public health emergency.<\/p>\n

It was double the $50 million the hospital received from the state<\/a> in 2025 and is expected to reduce the 2026 operating loss from $167.1 million to $82.5 million, officials said. “I think there’s a greater trust with the team they have in there now and that trust is very important,” said Kessel, when asked why the state had provided more funding as Stokes takes the helm.<\/p>\n

But Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who is challenging Hochul for\u00a0governor, has not yet met with Stokes despite the inevitable entanglements between the\u00a0hospital and the county.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While he hasn’t directly commented on Stokes, Blakeman\u00a0has described the state’s reconfiguration of the board as an “unlawful power grab.” He decried the recent boost in funding and has previously threaten to sue the state. Along with county Legis. Howard Kopel, the Republican majority leader, Blakeman has\u00a0refused to appoint anyone<\/a> to the new board despite county taxpayers backing the hospital’s debt,\u00a0millions in county-hospital service contracts and other financial, real estate and employment\u00a0commitments.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, her plan to control NUMC has made the hospital more costly to taxpayers,” Blakeman said of Hochul\u00a0in a statement to Newsday.<\/p>\n

Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton, who leads the county legislature’s Democratic caucus which did appoint a\u00a0representative to the board, said Blakeman’s political fight with Hochul has hurt the hospital. She said she hopes he and Republicans do not\u00a0hamper Stokes’ efforts. She points to millions in unspent money from a major opioid settlement\u00a0the county is sitting on that could support the hospital’s efforts in treating more patients suffering from addiction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There are certain subjects that are above politics,” DeRiggi-Whitton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Forging trust<\/p>\n

Building trust within the hospital walls will be vital, too.<\/p>\n

Those representing employees say they hope to have an open line of communication with Stokes and the new leadership team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shakira Settles, president of the CSEA Local 831, which represents about 2,800 employees across the main East Meadow hospital, the nursing home, the jail and the \u00a0health centers, said it was a good sign when the new board included union leadership in final CEO interviews,\u00a0“which was great because nobody really includes us.”<\/p>\n

She said staffers were concerned\u00a0after years of uncertainty, particularly after the Blakeman-appointed leadership\u00a0team\u00a0mounted a campaign in early 2025<\/a>\u00a0telling employees and the community that a state takeover would result in the hospital’s closure and, subsequent job loss. Blakeman in 2023 appointed GOP donor Matthew Bruderman, a businessman from Centre Island, to chair\u00a0 the health system’s board. Bruderman, against the advice of state health officials, promoted Megan Ryan to the role of permanent CEO. The Bruderman-Ryan leadership team had resisted state involvement resulting in state aid that was half of what the new leadership has since brought in.<\/p>\n

The lack of cooperation between the two sides left employees in the middle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s been a challenge over the last few years,” Settles said.\u00a0“People were very, very worried and how can you blame them.”<\/p>\n

CSEA employees, Settles said, see the recent cash infusion as a sign\u00a0the hospital will soon be in a position to come to the negotiating table on their new contract. For about three years,\u00a0CSEA employees have been working under the terms of an expired contract.<\/p>\n

She said many feel as if his\u00a0first few weeks have made them feel more invested in the future of the institution. A town-hall meeting Stokes\u00a0held in his first few days\u00a0for hundreds employees was well received, she said.<\/p>\n

Clear direction, honest dialogue and greater\u00a0transparency will go a long way and\u00a0employees want\u00a0the Stokes’ leadership team to hold themselves accountable during the turnaround period,\u00a0she added.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of optimism, of course there are always going to be naysayers, but there is a lot more optimism than there was six to eight months ago,” Settles said.\u00a0“We care about the quality of care at this hospital because, remember, we are patients too. We use these services too.”<\/p>\n

\"Candice<\/p>\n

\n\tCandice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On his first day as new CEO of Nassau University Medical Center, Thomas\u00a0Stokes\u00a0found himself with a blood pressure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[114,163,521,85,46,126144,38041],"class_list":{"0":"post-265969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-local-politics","14":"tag-nassau"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}