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High-paidH Bronx-Leb execs pushedp big-bucks surgeries
EEmbattled Bronx-Lebanon Hosppital found questionable ways to bboost revenue to give executives fat salaries, bonuses and perks — including a $20,000 shower in the CEO’s office bathroroom, whistleblowers totold The Post.
Honchos at the taxpayer-supported institution — whose construction project is in investigators’ cross hairs over alleged links to mob kickbacks — pushed big-ticket surgeries to bring revenue to the hospital.
But some of those operations were performed by a doctor with a record of alleged poor outcomes for his patients, according to sources and documents reviewed by The Post.
The hospital lavished six-figure bonuses on its chief of orthopedics, Dr. Ira Kirschenbaum, despite brass being told of four deaths after he arrived in 2008 and about other patients who suffered serious complications, according to sources.
Kirschenbaum, who performs moneymaking operations such as hip and knee replacements, received a $314,210 bonus in 2014 and a $180,940 bonus in 2015, according to Bronx-Lebanon’s tax filings. The extra pay came on top of his $851,000 salary.
Seven hospital employees, who identified themselves as doctors, nurses and technicians, sent The Post a copy of a letter they said they presented to a state medical disciplinary panel to complain about patients more recently injured under Kirschenbaum’s care — including one who allegedly lost a leg.
The letter was sent anonymously, and the state Health Department would not comment on any complaints to the Office of Professional Medical Conduct.
Kirschenbaum said the OPMC looked into a complaint made about patient deaths many years ago and cleared him. He said the patients had been very sick before surgery and that he was unaware of a more recent probe. He denied that a patient lost a leg after he operated.
Kirschenbaum has three malpractice suits pending against him, including two for botched knee replacements, records show. They have been filed since 2015.
“In the last 30 years, that’s pretty good,” Kirschenbaum told The Post, saying he had done 3,000 surgeries at Bronx-Lebanon.
Hospital CEO Miguel Fuentes hired Kirschenbaum as a division chief without consulting Dr. John Cosgrove, who was then chief of surgery and would have overseen him, Cosgrove told The Post.
Cosgrove said he did not have a chance to vet Kirschenbaum.
Cosgrove also said he saw another troubling practice at the hospital: bonus payments of up to $60 paid to doctors for each visit made to the institution’s clinics — in order to tout that the hospital treated 1 million patients annually. It reached that number in 2012, according to Cosgrove.
“Seeing a patient in the clinic is your obligation as a hospital physician and that should not be incentivized,” Cosgrove said. “Mr. Fu- entes said at many meetings he wanted to hit a million-visit mark at their 55-or-so outpatient clinics.”
Doctors were already paid salaries by Bronx-Lebanon, and the clinic bounties came from Medicaid reimbursements, according to Cosgrove.
Such an incentive system was ripe for abuse because it could lentice doctors to scheduleH additional, and possibly unnecessary, visits, he said.
“It’s really counter to what we as doctors stand for,” said Cosgrove, who left the hospital in 2013 and is now chief of surgery at Eastern Long Island Hospital.
The state Medicaid Inspector General’s Office would not comment on the legality of paying doctors incentives.
Meanwhile, executives enjoyed hefty salaries. Fuentes received $1.7 million in compensation in 2015, tax filings show. He has a car and a driver — and a source described a $20,000 glass-and-tile shower for his office bathroom. The shower was removed because of concerns over how such an amenity might appear, the source said.
Sources have also told The Post that the construction of BronxLebanon’s $42 million outpatient center is tied to the Luchese crime family.
Luchese underboss Steven “Wonder Boy” Crea Sr. and associate Joseph Venice were charged last month with wire and mail fraud in connection with a project at “a major New York City hospital,” according to a federal indictment.
No hospital executives were indicted, but the probe is ongoing.
Fred Miller, a hospital lawyer, said Bronx-Lebanon doctors were not paid clinic bonuses, only salaries, and that compensation was “consistent with Medicare/Medicaid principles.”
Miller acknowledged that a shower had been installed, but called it “modest” and disputed its cost.