Journalists sometimes need a little while to figure out when we’re hearing the truth and when we’re simply getting hosed.
So it’s with a bit of confusion that we’ve been reading the reportage over the past couple of days on the resignation of Shlomo Mor-Yosef, the soon-to-be former director general of the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem.
What is clear is that Mor-Yosef tendered his resignation last week, telling the board of Hadassah, which is the parent of Israel’s largest medical center, that once his current contract is up at the end of 2010, he will be stepping down.
The Jerusalem Post’s Judy Siegel-Itzkovich reported Jan. 6 that Mor-Yosef is stepping down in a year in part because he "has reportedly been unhappy in his post for years, especially after the financial crisis faced by HMO due to losses to donors and Hadassah in the wake of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scam."
The story prompted an emergency visit to JTA from Hadassah’s president, Nancy Falchuk, with the organization’s PR adviser in tow. They hammered home what has been their message for most of the past year: The organization has shed $30 million in budget in recent months, and yes, the nonprofit has laid off a number of employees in the United States.
But those steps were planned before Madoff or the recession — as part of a strategic plan worked out with the help of the high powered consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Things are just being implemented quicker than they would have otherwise been. Oh, and by the way, over the long term, Hadassah actually ended up making money off of its Madoff investments.
Falchuk also rejected key elements of the Post report, insisting that Mor-Yosef, who was hired in 2001, was simply following through on his long-term plan to step down after 10 years — not quitting over budget cuts. "He is a fund raiser and he is staying committed to that for the year," said Falchuk, who also serves on JTA’s board. "And next year, if we want him to continue raising money, he would do so."
By Jan. 8, The Jerusalem Post appeared to have flip-flopped in its analys. In a follow-up story, Siegel-Itzkovich reported without any attribution that Mor-Yosef essentially had been pushed out and told that his contract would not be renewed.
Siegel-Itzkovich portrayed Hadassah — both the hospital and the organization — as being in decline.
While Falchuk certainly would dispute the notion that organization is on a downward spiral toward collapse, she stressed repeatedly the various ways Hadassah needs to do better and is working hard to get there. In particular, she spoke about the need to prioritize and cut back in certain areas as Hadassah pushes ahead with efforts to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for capital upgrades at the medical center in Israel. Those upgrades are needed to provide adequate care and keep the hospital on the cutting edge of medical research in the 21st century, she said.
Each time Hadassah cuts from the budget or experiences a personnel departure, many in the media paint the developments as of an organization falling further into the abyss. The organization’s leaders say it’s the other way around — these steps are what will ensure its survival.
