The New York Downtown Hospital has decided to make new friends, but keep the old, hiring a new chief executive officer while returning the current C.E.O. to his role as chief of medicine.
The complex that many Downtowners still call Beekman Hospital has hired Jeffrey Menkes as its new president and C.E.O. Dr. Bruce Logan, who became president/C.E.O. in 2003, will return to his previous job of directing medicine and patient care at the hospital. The hospital announced the changes April 30. According to hospital spokesperson Vanessa Warner, Logan had always planned for his stint as president to be a temporary one.
“It sounds cheesy, but he really does put the patients first,” she said. “He really wanted to get back to working with them.”
Menkes will officially assume his new role on May 7. The hospital said that Menkes will work closely with Logan to develop “strategic, clinical business opportunities.” Menkes has a masters degree in business from Baruch College and has worked for some of the New York area’s most recognizable healthcare institutions, including Mt. Sinai Hospital, Columbia-Presbyterian and Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx. He most recently worked as a healthcare consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Menkes was out of town at press time and could not be reached for comment.
Robert Hunter, the chairperson of the Downtown Hospital board of trustees, released a statement praising Logan for his post 9/11 tenure, which included the sale of the hospital’s parking lot to residential developers and the construction of a new emergency care center. Hunter said that Menkes would build on the hospital’s positive momentum.
“Dr. Logan provided strong leadership during a complex and challenging period in our hospital’s history,” Hunter said. About Menkes, Hunter said, “His impressive talents will lead Downtown Hospital to an even more financially secure and successful future.”
Logan did not return a request for comment.
— Skye H. McFarlane
