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Mount
Sinai is considering selling its Miami Heart campus to
help finance its operations. But Dr. Enrique Davila, a
Mount Sinai physician, says the hospital already uses
donations meant for research to keep it in the black.
Photo by Ben Torter |
Dr.
Enrique Davila is unhappy with the way Mount Sinai Medical
Center is being run and how its foundation is spending donated
money.
He’s written a six-page
letter to the hospital and Miami Beach city commissioners
seeking answers to questions about excessive Mount Sinai
executive compensation and misuse of donated funds.
Among his allegations: that
the nonprofit hospital is losing millions of dollars while its
fundraising arms, the Mount Sinai Medical Center Foundation and
Mount Sinai Founders Club, transferred donated money to help
balance its books and enable exorbitant salaries to be paid to
the hospital’s top executives.
That letter, dated Sept. 25,
is the second written by Davila. The first was dated June 4 and
was covered by the
Miami Herald’s
Joan Fleischman in her June 24 “Talk of the Town” column. In it,
Davila said he received a letter from Mount Sinai Foundation
president Michael Milberg asking him for his “charitable pledge”
of $3,828. Davila stated that he was withholding it out of
concern about how charitable donations were being handled.
Davila then questioned why executives were pulling in six-figure
salaries and President and CEO Steve Sonenreich made more than
$1 million a year. Davila said he eventually wrote the check.
Davila was
director of Mount Sinai’s Comprehensive Cancer Center until last
year, when he was let go over a business dispute with Aptium
Oncology, a California corporation that manages the center.
Davila still sees patients at Mount Sinai, though he now works
out of an office in Broward.
Neither Davila nor the
SunPost have been able to get a satisfactory response from
Mount Sinai. The hospital’s official answer to a list of
detailed questions was a statement from its director of
marketing, Kathleen Dorkowski.
“Unfortunately,
Dr. Davila’s letter is filled with exaggerations and
misrepresentations. Dr. Davila was hurt and angry at his
separation from Aptium Oncology and for whatever personal reason
continues to make Mount Sinai the target of his unhappiness,”
wrote Dorkowski. “While we believe that Dr. Davila is an
excellent physician, we don’t believe that engaging in further
discussion regarding these unwarranted allegations serves either
party’s interest. Be assured that
Mount Sinai
cares deeply about its community, patients, physicians and
employees. We remain committed to providing world-class health
care every day.”
Whatever
Davila’s motivation, his letters raise interesting points at a
time when Mount Sinai’s executives, employees and supporters are
pouring tens of thousands of dollars into this year’s Miami
Beach city election, and the hospital is involved in a zoning
battle with the city and Middle Beach homeowners over its Miami
Heart Campus at 4701 N. Meridian Ave. Mount Sinai, which
purchased Miami Heart for about $80 million in 2000, recently
announced it might sell that facility, worrying neighbors
concerned that intensive commercial or residential development
could replace the medical campus.
In his latest
letter, Davila wrote, “In Ms. Fleishman’s article, the CEO [Sonenreich]
indicated that the hospital had ‘a $2.2 million surplus in ’06,
$6.9 million in ’05.’ This is incorrect.”
Davila included
documentation showing that the hospital actually had losses in
those years, but Mount Sinai Foundation money was transferred to
balance the books.
Indeed, a May
3, Mount Sinai investor presentation shows that the hospital
lost $3,071,000 in ’05 and $7,775,000 in ’06. The positive
numbers Sonenreich mentioned came only after the foundation made
two transfers of $10 million, one in ’05 and one in ’06.
Davila said he
believes the intent of the Founders was not to balance the
hospital’s books, but to fund equipment, research, education and
recruitment.
Davila’s
letters also express concern that Mount Sinai’s top
administrators are being paid too much.
“On a
conference phone call held Aug. 24, open to all bond investors
and the public, Mr. Sonenreich was questioned about the
allegations contained in my letter and the Miami Herald
article,” Davila wrote. “He justified the salaries of the senior
administrators, despite the hospital’s financial losses and the
need for the foundation subsidies, indicating an outside
consultant recommended the salaries and the board approved
them.”
Davila included
a July 30 article in Modern Healthcare magazine that
shows average salaries for executives in hospitals similar in
size to Mount Sinai. It lists the median CEO salary as $524,600
a year in ’06.
Sinai failed to
provide Sonenreich’s ’06 compensation, but Davila said it was
$1,411,919 that year. Salaries for other top executives were
similarly out of whack, Davila said. Alex Mendez, chief
financial officer, made $713,933 in 2004. Karen Moyer, chief
nursing officer, made $503,279 in 2003.
Davila’s Sept. 25
letter mentions the now-dead $95 million bond proposal by
mayoral hopeful Commissioner Simon Cruz to purchase Miami Heart
and turn it into a park. Cruz and Commissioners Richard
Steinberg, Michael Gongora and Jerry Libbin voted for the bond
on first reading. The proposal was seen by critics as a bailout
for
Mount Sinai; it
was killed after it was revealed the actual cost would be closer
to $180 million, and many residents didn’t want to pay for it.
“Undoubtedly,
the discussions will continue with the political puppets in the
legendary South Florida style of politicians for sale; this time
to bail out Mount Sinai and its overpaid executives,” Davila
wrote.
To date, Cruz
has received more than $50,000 from doctors, board members and
others associated with Mount Sinai. Commission hopeful Luis
Salom has been given more than $19,000, and Gongora more than
$8,000. While it is true that eight of 12 candidates have
received Mount Sinai-associated money, these three by far have
deposited the most into their campaign coffers.
On Oct. 17 the
commission will vote on a plan proposed by Commissioner Matti
Bower, Cruz’s biggest competition for mayor. If it passes,
voters will decide Jan. 29 whether zoning for the city’s four
hospital districts should revert to something compatible with
their surrounding neighborhoods. In the case of Miami Heart, the
surrounding neighborhood is single-family homes.
Another idea
would allow hospitals to be sold for use as acute care living
facilities. And now
Mount Sinai wants the rights to build a 10-story tower on the
Miami Heart Campus, an announcement that has Middle Beach
residents up in arms.
Through it all,
the hospital is taking a beating in the media.
Most recently,
an Oct. 8 Miami Herald article questioned whether some of
the Mount Sinai-associated money pouring into campaigns may
violate a city ordinance banning donations from certain vendors,
lobbyists and developers.
Said Davila in
a telephone interview, “I
believe it clearly suggests that Mount Sinai executives and some
donors were supporting those who voted in favor of giving Mount
Sinai bailout money.”
Davila’s entire
letter, along with supporting documentation, is a public record
on file at Miami Beach City Hall.
Read the letter: Page
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