WOONSOCKET – Landmark Medical Center CEO Gary J. Gaube has announced plans to leave the hospital at the end of this year, ending a 20-year tenure at the Woonsocket hospital, as efforts are under way to save Landmark through a sale, merger or new affiliation.
Gaube, who joined the nonprofit institution in 1988 as chief financial officer and has been its CEO for nine years, has watched the hospital’s finances deteriorate over time. Last month, as Landmark’s net worth fell into negative figures – with only enough cash to keep operating for about nine months, and amid fears that a desired deal with Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island (READ MORE) could not be completed in time to avoid closure – Gaube sought help from R.I. Superior Court.
Judge Michael A. Silverstein appointed Jonathan N. Savage, a partner with Shechtman, Halperin and Savage in Pawtucket, to serve as special master in charge of Landmark, giving him the power to administer the hospital’s assets and find a buyer or partner to save the facility. (READ MORE)
Gaube will receive his salary through the end of the year – $500,000 annually – along with accrued sick time, health benefits for a year, and the transference of his life insurance policy to his own name. But he has waived the severance pay that was included in his contract.
Gaube declined a request for an interview. But in a news release yesterday, he said that he took “great pride in the success we achieved in bringing new and expanded health care services to our community.”
These are “trying times” financially for all community hospitals, he added. (READ MORE “I feel the timing is right to announce my departure as Landmark begins a new chapter in its long history.”
Landmark Medical Center – a division of the nonprofit Landmark Health Systems Inc. – is a regional hospital with specialties in cancer and cardiac care. Its cardiac program and emergency department are affiliated with Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Additional information is available at www.LandmarkMedical.org.
