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Overcast Peninsula Hospital Center refocuses its mission
New CEO Todd Miller emphasizes service at Far Rockaway facility
Chief executive officer Todd Miller plans to bring an entrepreneurial spirit and business sense to his effort to revive the Peninsula Hospital Center in Far Rockaway.
Miller took over Peninsula’s operations on Sept. 2, a day after Brooklyn-based Revival Home Health Care acquired the hospital from the Queens-based Medisys Health Network. “I saw a hospital that didn’t deserve to close,” Miller, a former executive at Revival, said of Peninsula.
Since Medisys had begun the process of closing the hospital, Miller said he found “gaping holes” in its operations. To get the facility back on its feet, he had to restart some departments, such as billing and collection, to begin generating revenue again.
Peninsula is currently making its way through bankruptcy proceedings and negotiating with creditors. Local 1199, the employees’ union, is owed $20 million of the approximately $60 million in debt the hospital has accrued.
“We have a reorganization plan and we are on track to emerge from bankruptcy in the spring,” Miller said.
Earlier this month, the hospital’s board of directors voted on four competing loan proposals. The board selected an $8 million loan package from a Revival affiliate.
Miller has begun updating the hospital’s computer systems to improve record-keeping, and brought in state-of-the-art digital technology to upgrade its X-ray department.
After the acquisition, there were 51 layoffs, mostly of nurses, but since then, at least 10 nurses have been rehired and are being retrained to move into departments where they are most needed, such as case management and the emergency room. Five executives, including former CEO Bob Levine, left Peninsula, Miller said, adding that a new management team should be in place by Jan. 9.
Department head positions have also been filled as Miller has gone about remaking Peninsula from a 173-bed hospital to a more service-oriented facility with, at most, 120 beds. It now has approximately 80 patients. Peninsula’s mission, as Miller views it, is to serve the Far Rockaway community and understand how it uses the hospital.
