Hadassah Hospital Chief Abruptly Resigns
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Image by getty images
The CEO of Jerusalem’s financially troubled Hadassah Medical Center has resigned.
In his resignation letter Monday, Avigdor Kaplan said he objected to the recent agreement between Hadassah and the Israeli government calling for a state-appointed financial controller to oversee the hospital’s seven-year recovery plan, according to Globes, an Israeli business publication.
Citing sources in the health system, Globes reported that Kaplan was actually forced to step down because of recent conflicts between him and the Hadassah board.
Tamar Yablonski-Peretz, who heads Hadassah’s Sharett Institute of Oncology, will succeed Kaplan on an interim basis. The hospital, which is saddled with nearly $370 million in debt and an annual deficit exceeding $85 million, declared bankruptcy in February.
The recovery plan, developed in May, calls for the hospital to draw funding equally from the Israeli government and the Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America, which owns the hospital.
Under the plan, Hadassah is to lay off 30 doctors and researchers, as well as hundreds of employees, according to Haaretz.
The plan also calls for the hospital to close several departments and restructure its board.
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