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The NY State Commission on Healthcare facilities recommended closing nine hospitals in the state in order to save $1.5 billion. Five are in New York City: St. Vincent's Midtown and Cabrini Medical Center in Manhattan; Victory Memorial in Brooklyn; New York Westchester Square Medical in the Bronx; and Pakway Hospital in Queens.
In addition to the recommended closures, the panel recommended that some facilities (ten of which are in the city) be merged with other hospitals in order to make cuts. For instance, Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat would join Lenox HIll Hospital.
NY1 had reaction from some hospital employees:
There'll only be two emergency departments to cover from the Upper West Side all the way down to Battery Park City and yet we see one million workers a day come into this area and we see 25 million tourists annually in this area and I think two emergency departments are not going to be able to handle the emergency needs of the West Side,” said Michael Fagan of St. Vincent’s Midtown.While hospital staff, politicians and community members are upset with the cuts and plan to fight them, some watchdogs don't think the cuts were deep enough; Mayor Bloomberg even said he thought the cuts were going to be larger. The Post points out that two hospitals "long considered to be on life support," Harlem's North General and Downtown Hospital, were not cut. Though North General is in Congressman Rangel's district and Downtown Hospital is in Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's domain, the commission said no hospitals were spared."It just hit me today that I'm going to have to find another job and that's not what I'm thinking about,” said Cabrini Chief of Geriatrics Nadia Marsh. “I'm thinking about our hundreds and thousands of patients who aren't going to have their doctors that they've had for 10 and 20 and sometimes even 30 years. These are old people; for them to make a transition to another hospital and another doctor at the age of 85 is very, very difficult."
Naturally, developers are salivating over the real estate these hospitals occupy. The NY Sun highlighted this finding: "Midtown Manhattan real estate values remain high, particularly in the up-and-coming Clinton neighborhoods where the hospital is located, and a sale of the building would cover a complete repayment of its debt." St. Vincent's Midtown could be sold for $90 million, while Cabrini in Gramercy could be sold for $130 million.
The Commission's findings will take effect if Governor Pataki and the Legislature do not overturn them. The NY Times' analysis of the recommended closures notes that $1.5 billion in federal money to help the state close hospitals is "a carrot" and with the report issued before Eliot Spitzer becomes governor, Spitzer gets "the opportunity to close hospitals, and save the state money, without having to go through the politically difficult step of choosing which ones to shutter."
Here is the whole report (PDF) from the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century.
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Heck, since the pursuit of the almighty dollar knows no bounds, why not close *all* the hospitals and sell them to those salivating developers? The rich will get richer, while simply flying helicopters up to Connecticut to get healthcare, and the rest of the city can go f*ck itself. I'll bet there are a bunch of schools that occupy pretty valuable real estate as well; sell them, too.
in conjunction with the financial cost-benefit evaluations, does anyone know if they do efficiency studies of hospital usage of those they plan to shut down, how many sick will be displaced and whether the remaining hospitals have enough beds to cover them?
There is an idiot somewhere in a position of power at the the NY State Commission on Healthcare facilities.
How could this happen in the greatest city in the world?
I smell some real estate greed comming on.
As a physician..let me give you guys some insight about healthcare in NYC. We have too many hospitals. Take Cabrini..this private hospital is basically two blocks from Beth Isreal and not far from St. Vincents and operates at basically 20% at any given time ...it is a money pit that only serves as unneeded duplication of services not needed in that neighborhood.
It has nothing to do with greed...healthcare is at crisis in this city
As a health professional for the last 25 years I know something about healthcare as well. What the commission did was disgraceful. The report was the about the simplest of human motivations, Money, Power and Influence. It was the death blow to the little guy in healthcare who does the job because they actually care. It was orchestrated by the big corporate mega hospital systems to lock down market share and "Support" politicians aspirations.
Just take a look at the details of the report, it's on line and available. The commission has even gone to the mega hospitals CEO's and told them about all the new business that’s coming there way, and guess what, here’s the kicker, the state is going to cough up millions and millions to "Help Them" take care of there new bootie, aka patients.
Now lets get to the biggest joke here, has anyone noticed who is NOT on the list? None of the big boys have to cut anything, none of the city hospitals have been touched, none of the facilities in Charlie Rangel and Shelly Silver's districts have been touched. They ALL have massive waste and duplication. In the case of the city facilities it's institutionalized waste. I know the facilities, I know the administrators, they actually get in trouble if they don't spend all the money they budget for in a year.
Disgraceful, the smaller facilities they want to close provide better care at a cheaper cost with much much less overhead.
Don’t be fooled, this is ALL about Money, Power and Influence. Nothing more.
to DaDocta:
"It has nothing to do with greed...healthcare is at crisis in this city"
please explain.
If closing 9 hospitals saves $1.5 billion just think how much we can save by CLOSING THEM ALL!.
THEN the City can sell Do-It-Yourself Surgery Kits so people can sew themselves up at home after losing a limb or even remove their own gall-bladders on the kitchen island if they're so inclined. Those Surgery Kits will reap a pretty penny!. Am I mayoral material or what?.
While we're at it, let's turn-off all street lighting after 10pm and require everyone to purchase and carry a Certifed City Flashlight.
I mean, who REALLY needs to be out that late, right?.
We'll not only make a killing on the flashlights and save on electricity bills ..it'll also boost the sales of our 'Do-It-Yourself Surgery Kits'.
Oh I got TONS of money-saving ideas the city would like.
Its a disgrace that TWO teaching hospitals have to close in NY. Someone in Beth Israel is gonna be making lots of money when they start getting the patients that Cabrini and St Vincent wont be attending!!
Yes its about money, but not the state money, its about the pockets of those in charge of the big hospitals in NY city!!!
M.M.B Medical Doctor