"Another Guy Who Ethically Ran Amok": Bellevue Hospital Executive Fired

The New York Times reports yet another hospital chief executive leaving in disgrace. Carlos F. Perez, executive director of Bellevue Hospital Center, was fired after he was accused of taking a loan from a company that did business with city hospitals. The acting director the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, of which Bellevue is a part, declared, "We have no tolerance for unethical conduct in our city's public hospitals. This breach of the public trust is a disservice to our patients and the thousands of H.H.C employees."
Perez is the second chief executive of a New York City public hospital to depart under a cloud in the last week. We recently posted about how Joseph Orlando, the executive director of Jacobi Hospital, was fired because his hospital failed to notify hundreds of women about suspicious Pap test results.
A City Councilwoman declared, "I am shocked about the development at Bellevue and the fact that in less then [sic] a week we have lost two of our hospital leaders. It really raises questions to me about management of H.H.C. You had one guy who was not managing his staff, and now you have another guy who ethically ran amok."
Earlier this month, we posted about the firing of Joseph Pisani, the Chief Administative Officer of Westchester (NY) County Medical Center, after it was reported he had been involved in fraudulant practices at Staten Island (NY) University Hospital.
It hasn't been a good month for hospital leadership in New York.
However, this is not just a regional problem. This cluster of cases should remind us how widespread the problem of unethical leadership of large health organizations is. If we want things to get better, physicians must get involved in systematically uncovering incompetent, unethical, and corrupt leadership, while fostering representative, transparent, ethical and responsible health care governance.