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Chief of New York’s Struggling Public Hospital System Is Resigning

The chief executive of NYC Health & Hospitals, which runs New York City’s public hospitals, is stepping down from his post atop the nation’s largest municipal health care system, a move that City Hall officials described on Monday as voluntary and expected.

The departure of the executive, Dr. Ramanathan Raju, comes several months after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his plan to overhaul the hospital system, which faces a staggering shortfall of cash for the operations of 11 hospitals across the city, including the flagship Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan and Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens.

Appointed by Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, in the first weeks of his administration in 2014, Dr. Raju told City Hall officials in September that he wanted to resign, according to a spokeswoman for the mayor. A person familiar with Dr. Raju’s thinking said the recent death of his mother precipitated his departure, which is effective at the end of the month.

“He felt in many ways that he had done as much as he could,” said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. “His mother had always lived with him. He wanted to go to India and do all of the rituals.”

Dr. Raju will be departing the agency as it faces fiscal challenges that the city’s Independent Budget Office has called the steepest in memory. Shortfalls prompted the city to infuse an additional $500 million into Health & Hospitals, formerly known as the Health and Hospitals Corporation, which has a budget of roughly $7 billion. The city’s annual contribution is expected to top $2 billion until at least 2020 as state and federal funding has declined. People without health insurance make up a significant number of those who use the system.

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Dr. Ramanathan Raju will step down at the end of the month.Credit...Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

“The city administration really has nothing to do with the funding issues,” said Kenneth E. Raske, president of the trade group Greater New York Hospital Association. “The transformation of the health care system is not limited to H.&H. It’s across the United States.”

The city also took over health care services at the Rikers Island jail complex last year, adding new complexity to the task of reforming the system.

“I think Ram Raju over the last almost three years really did great work to start fixing Health and Hospitals Corporation,” Mr. de Blasio said during his weekly interview on the local news channel NY1. “It’s going to need a lot of work.”

His departure was reported by The Daily News.

Stanley Brezenoff, who ran the Health and Hospitals Corporation in the 1980s, is set to take over from Dr. Raju until a permanent replacement is named. Mr. Brezenoff, 78, a veteran of city politics and health care who served as first deputy mayor to Mayor Edward I. Koch, has experience with turning around medical institutions, notably at Maimonides Medical Center, which struggled financially before his arrival there in 1995.

“He’s a really good strategist and knows how to make a plan,” said Pamela Brier, who worked with Mr. Brezenoff at Maimonides and succeeded him as chief executive. Ms. Brier is now on a panel of health care experts advising the de Blasio administration on Health & Hospitals.

Mr. Brezenoff faced another challenge at Long Island College Hospital, which he ran as the chief executive officer and president of Continuum Health Partners until the hospital was taken over by the state. Mr. de Blasio, as a candidate for mayor, resisted its closing and then fought to preserve some health care there once in office.

The former site of the hospital in Brooklyn Heights is now on a path to be developed as market-rate housing.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: Chief Executive of City’s Public Hospital System Will Resign Amid a Budget Shortfall. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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