Can Public Hospitals Continue to Perform Their Mission to Serve the Poor?

Abstract

This case study spotlights Nassau County Medical Center, a public county hospital on Long Island, outside New York City. It explores how a public hospital has fared in a fiscally deteriorating, politically tumultuous climate and an increasingly competitive healthcare environment. With concerns about the hospital’s historic mission to serve the poor, events and circumstances are discussed that resulted in the hospital being sold and converted to a public benefit corporation. Lessons learned from the study are then identified.