{"id":150615,"date":"2026-03-03T04:19:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/150615\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T04:19:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:19:22","slug":"gov-hochuls-pick-to-lead-nassau-county-hospital-abruptly-resigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/150615\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Hochul&#8217;s pick to lead Nassau County hospital abruptly resigns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The bigwig tapped by Gov. Kathy Hochul to turn around the beleaguered Nassau University Medical Center resigned months after his high-profile appointment.<\/p>\n<p>Hospital officials and Hochul\u2019s office confirmed Monday that Stu Rabinowitz tendered his resignation, contending he brought stability to NUMC amid a leadership crisis and a projected $167 million deficit.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Stokes, who was selected by the hospital\u2019s board in December to serve as permanent CEO, will now be leading the hospital. <\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38649287\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-new-york-city-hochul-120887377_ed75ac.jpg\" alt=\"New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks at a press conference on housing and the &quot;Let Them Build&quot; agenda.\" class=\"wp-image-38649287\"\/>The bigwig tapped by Gov. Kathy Hochul to turn around the beleaguered Nassau University Medical Center resigned months after his high-profile appointment. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith Tom Stokes now in place as permanent CEO and the hospital operating on firmer footing, this is the right moment for me to step aside and allow the next phase of leadership to move forward,\u201d Rabinowitz said in a statement. \u201cThis was a voluntary role, but one that required real time and focus \u2014 a fact my wife Nancy never let me forget. I\u2019m looking forward to spending more time with her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rabinowitz, who previously led Hofstra University, was appointed in May to helm NUMC\u2019s board a day after 10 executives <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/05\/30\/us-news\/numc-ceo-and-9-other-hospital-leaders-resign-in-protest-over-hochuls-hostile-takeover\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">resigned from the hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The disaffected execs did so in response to what they deemed a \u201chostile takeover\u201d by Hochul, who had been given authority to handpick a majority of hospital board members.<\/p>\n<p>Rabinowitz and three other new appointees went in to fill the power vacuum.<\/p>\n<p>The new regime landed $110 million in state funding to stabilize the hospital\u2019s finances and dropped litigation against the state started by their predecessors, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStu Rabinowitz stepped up when Nassau University Medical Center desperately needed steady, serious leadership,\u201d Hochul said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis focus on accountability and fiscal management has helped put this critical safety-net hospital on the road to recovery, and I thank him for his dedicated service to the Long Island region.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman \u2014 who opposed the state takeover of NUMC and has previously accused the governor of participating in an alleged long-running scheme to defraud and close the hospital  \u2014 said the resignation was predictable.<br \/>\u201cIt is no surprise that Stu Rabinowitz, a man of integrity, will not play games with people\u2019s lives, as Kathy Hochul has done by defunding the hospital to gain control and then packing it with Democratic operatives and contributors,\u201d Blakeman, the GOP-nominee for this year\u2019s gubernatorial race, told The Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bigwig tapped by Gov. Kathy Hochul to turn around the beleaguered Nassau University Medical Center resigned months&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[426,57,774,9,11,10,49,51,50,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-150615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-kathy-hochul","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-nassau-county","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-new-york-state","15":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-state-news","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}