Nabil El Sanadi – Broward Health’s Million Dollar CEO!

By Dan Lewis, BrwdHealth, for the SouthFloridaReporter, June 15, 2015 – Dr. Nabil El Sanadi, crying poverty, is Broward Health’s highest paid CEO in history with over one million dollars in “active” compensation by including his “part-time” work and his full-time position as CEO.  This for a person who has never managed a hospital let alone one of the largest public hospital systems in the nation.

Last April 2015, I wrote two posts about Dr. El Sanadi’s appointment and contract as Broward Health’s CEO.  SeeThe Best Broward Health CEO contract politics can buy! “ and “Has the Office of Inspector General seen Dr. El Sanadi’s CEO Contract with Broward Health?”.

Dr. El Sanadi refused to produce his “Medical Director” contracts with the Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO), or his contracts with the cities of Fort Lauderdale, Sunrise, and Tamarac as requested by my first public record’s request, which was, in part, the subject to my four-part post (see Just say No – How Not to Cancel a Meeting – Part 3).  When Dr. El Sanadi refused to produce these contracts, I asked BSO and each city for a copy, and all the contracts were produced electronically and un-redacted to me within 48 hours! (see BSO contract, Fort Lauderdale contract,Sunrise contract, Tamarac contract) This is in contrast to the heavily redacted response from El Sanadi’s attorney, which was produced close to 60 days after requested at a cost to Broward Health of about $44,000.00.  Ostensibly this is El Sanadi’s version of transparency!

These “Medical Director” contracts were made important in section 6.3 of Dr. El Sanadi’s Broward Health contract because it allows Dr. El Sanadi to maintain his “Medical Director” agreements despite requiring him to be full time with Broward Health.  This contract provision effectively ignores the time El Sanadi contracted to the various other governmental entities, and even the basic indemnifications for either thetime or money predictable legal proceedings of all types might require.  It puts thedeep pockets of Broward Health squarely at risk for these outside activities, leaving the tax payers holding the bag!

But not to worry, Dr. El Sanadi is being well paid for his “part-time outside” work:

El Sanadi-Medical Director Contracts

What’s more, these four “Medical Director” contracts incorporate the EMS (Rescue and ambulance) services for 10 cities plus Port Everglades and the Airport.  The cities include Fort Lauderdale, Sunrise, Tamarac, Dania Beach, Deerfield Beach, Cooper City, Lauderdale Lakes, Pembroke Park, West Park and Weston.  Mutual Aid agreements extend this service to all adjoining cities.  As I discussed in my previous post “Has the Office of Inspector General seen Dr. El Sanadi’s CEO Contract with Broward Health?”, these agreements on their face present serious ethical problems for “King” El Sanadi as well as unacceptable exposure to Broward Health in potential direct and indirect liability.  This, not to mention likely increased scrutiny by the Justice Department.Add this “part-time outside” work fees to his annual salary of $675,000.00 as Broward Health’s CEO and Dr. El Sanadi’s is being paidover $947,340.00 annually this year.  Next year, all these amounts automatically escalate.  Adding insult to injury, these amounts do not include generous benefits and potential bonuses which would make his total annual salary and benefits value at the public tit well over one million dollars.

Here are some (but not all) of the duties for which “King” El Sanadi has contracted.  (Every one of Dr. El Sanadi’s part time contracts incorporate similar language to this language taken from the BSO agreement (Emphasis added)).

  1. [El Sanadi] shall serve as liaison between the [EMS Department] and the various community hospitals, other local emergency medical services agencies, and any other agency, physician, institution or organization affecting the [EMS Department] provision of emergency medical services.
  2. [El Sanadi] shall be available and on-call twenty-four (24) hours per day seven (7) days per week every day that this Agreement is in effect.
  3. [El Sanadi] shall make radio or ‘telephone contact with the [EMS Department]within fifteen (15) minutes of the Medical Director’s receipt of an electronic notification or page from the Fire Rescue operations center.
  4. [El Sanadi] shall issue standing orders and protocols to the [EMS Department] to ensure that the [EMS Department] transports each of its patients to facilities that offer a type and level of care appropriate to the patient’s medical condition if available within the service region.
  5. [El Sanadi] shall audit the performance of system personnel by use of a quality assurance program to include but not be limited to a prompt review of patient care records, direct observation, and comparison of performance standards for drugs, equipment, system protocols and procedures.
  6. [El Sanadi] shall assist, and make recommendations to, [EMS Department]regarding planning for emergency medical services, ambulance transportation policies, deployment of vehicles, distribution of resources, personnel matters, emergency medical technician training, paramedic training, utilization of medical facilities, hospital supplies, medical equipment, medications, narcotics, emergency medical services billing and reimbursement systems, and recovery of costs associated with the[EMS Department] emergency medical services system.
  7. [El Sanadi] shall perform at least forty-eight (48) hours per year, to wit: eight (8) hours every other calendar month, of in-the-field operations riding in rescue vehicles and/or EMS supervisor vehicles, reviewing the performance of Fire-Rescue Department’s emergency medical services personnel, and reviewing different incidents in which emergency medical services are rendered.
  8. [El Sanadi] shall participate in monthly and/or quarterly meetings with emergency medical services supervisors and/or field training officers, to last 1-4 hours.
  9. [El Sanadi] shall audit the performance of system personnel by use of a quality assurance program to include, but not be limited to, a prompt review of run reports, direct observation, and comparison of performance standards for drugs, equipment, system protocols and procedures.

Remember, multiply all these duties and time commitments by 4 – for BSO (and its contracted cities), Fort Lauderdale, Sunrise and Tamarac.

El Sanadi has a contractual obligation to direct patients being transported by BSO and the contracting cities emergency (EMS) to particular hospitals within a competitive hospital environment.  Another word for “direct” is “steer”?  When El Sanadisteers patients to any Broward Health facility – potentially, his annual bonus increases!  This arrangement would seem to be so facially offensive to the Justice Department, and so many anti-kick-back laws that it is curious why the Broward Health Board of Commissioners, or any of its attorneys wouldn’t have serious concerns.  How can the Broward Health Board reconcile the time El Sanadi, let alone the accompanying potential liability, will spend with his “part-time” work at the expense of Broward Health? Aren’t the taxpayers entitled to a full time CEO?  Aren’t we paying enough for a full time CEO?   Clearly, the Broward Health Board of Commissioners in their reputed inexperienced wisdom, who are putatively irresponsibly led by their Chair David DiPietro, and seemingly rushed by a sham process to coronate El Sanadi, didn’t think so.  Either that, or Dr. El Sanadi was less then candid about his outside obligationswhen he negotiated his CEO contract with Broward Health.

So how has Broward Health been managed by its highest paid CEO?  Among cries of “Patient’s First”, and “Manage Broward Health as a Hospital, not as a bank”,“King” Nabil El Sanadi has been busy putatively running Broward Health as his kingdom.  Inside sources at Broward Health tell of rumors of a growinghorrific working environment, lack of confidence votes, sweetheart deals, erratic behavior, and retaliatory tactics against any employees proximate to anyone articulating objections abound.

For my part, it has been difficult to discern what measure of criticism is caused by necessary reforms that have been a long time in coming, or the product of El Sanadi’s personal administrative style that is seemingly characterized by these sources most often as two-faced, publicity craven narcissism.  “King” El Sanadi  has much in common with the Emperor with no clothes.  To some high ranking sources,“King El Sanadi is writing a new chapter in ineffective management and leading Broward Health backward into the bad ol’ days of rampant and corrupt insider double dealing starting with his contract.

Note:  Dr. El Sanadi’s apparent conflicts are not restricted to just his “Medical Director” contracts, which are all in his name, but they also likely include his ownership, control or participation in his or his wife’s companies all of which seem to be in competition with Broward Health (See: Has the Office of Inspector General seen Dr. El Sanadi’s CEO Contract with Broward Health?”):

  • South Florida Fire Rescue Medical Directors’ Association, LLC
  • N & L Services, Inc.
  • Total EMS, Inc.
  • El Sanadi Holdings, LLC
  • Green Harbor Company

I will post information on these companies as information is developed.

Originally published by BrwdHealth.com on June 14, 2015
Dan Lewis of Strategic Technologies Research, Inc., in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is a former elected Miramar commissioner, Chair of the Broward County Charter Review Commission as well as many City, School Board and County public advisory boards over the last three decades. The opinions expressed here are his own and not that of SouthFloridaReporter.