Montefiore to take over Yeshiva U.’s medical school

NEW YORK – The Montefiore Health System is taking operational control of Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein School of Medicine.

Montefiore will assume responsibility for the financial management of Einstein, but Y.U. will remain the degree-granting institution with “a key role in the educational aspects of the entity,” according to a joint statement issued Tuesday by the institutions, which have collaborated on some level for 50 years.

Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx is the teaching hospital for Einstein, which has 734 medical students, 236 doctoral students and 106 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program.

The announcement comes two months after a report by Moody’s Investors Service warned that Y.U. was at risk of running out of money by the end of 2015 unless operations changes were made. The report cited equipment upgrades at the Einstein school as one reason for cost overruns at Y.U.

The deal will create a new entity, giving Montefiore “significant governance and financial responsibility.”

“We look forward to further strengthening Einstein as a major research institution that spans the scope from bench science to healthcare delivery transformation,” Dr. Steven Safyer, CEO of Montefiore, said in a statement.

Y.U. President Richard Joel called the move “a powerful and important step towards building a financially sustainable Yeshiva University.”

Under the agreement, faculty will retain academic appointments at Einstein but will be employed by Montefiore, according to the statement. Einstein also is affiliated with six other hospital systems in the New York area.

Montefiore, named for the 19th-century British Jewish philanthropist Moses Montefiore and founded by New York Jews, consists of six hospitals and an extended-care facility with a total of 2,059 beds, as well as a nursing school.