Ram Raju will resign as the head of New York City's embattled Health + Hospitals unit, effective Nov. 30.
Stanley Brezenoff, a previous president of the agency, will be the interim chief.
"I step down feeling certain that the work we have accomplished over the last two and half years puts us on solid ground to build a stronger, more efficient and financially sustainable public health care system," Raju said in a statement. "I am confident that the talented new team of leaders and the new multi-year reforms we are putting in place will bring about the successful transformation of this essential organization."
An overhaul of Health + Hospitals, rebranded from Health & Hospitals Corp. late last year, was a centerpiece of Mayor Bill de Blasio's $82.2 billion executive budget for fiscal 2017. The department faces a funding gap that by the mayor's own estimates could reach $1.8 billion by fiscal 2020.
De Blasio's proposal for Health + Hospitals aims to close the gap over four years through $700 million in expense savings and $1.1 billion in new revenue. It included an additional $160 million in fiscal 2016 for the agency. The city is also forgiving $180 million a year in debt service for fiscal 2017 and out.
The mayor expects to release his November budget plan later this month.
Budget watchdogs and municipal analysts said the mayor's H+H plan hinges excessively on unlikely outside help, and efficiencies that would just nibble at the margins while skirting such heavy decision-making as hospital closures, service privatizations or significant layoffs.
Health + Hospitals is the nation's largest municipal hospital system, serving 1.2 million New Yorkers annually and employing more than 40,000 people with 11 hospitals and 70 community-based clinics.
Previously, Raju was chief executive Cook County Health & Hospitals System in Chicago.
