NY hospitals’ downsizing plans draw criticism as outbreak grows

As New York works to drastically increase its hospital capacity, elected officials, community groups and the state’s largest nurses union are calling for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to halt projects that would reduce beds at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Manhattan and Montefiore Mount Vernon in Westchester County.

“We write to specifically urge that, in light of the Covid-19 crisis, the state institute an immediate moratorium on hospital closings and downsizings, including pausing those actions that already have state approval to go forward,” Lois Uttley, director of the women’s health program at Community Catalyst, wrote in a letter on behalf of the group Community Voices for Health System Accountability.
Neither hospital has immediate plans to go forward with the downsizing.

The governor said Friday morning that the state was working to rapidly increase the state’s hospital capacity to treat Covid-19 cases. The state has about 53,000 hospital beds. Cuomo predicted it could need as many as 110,000. Also, hospitals are in desperate need of ventilators in intensive-care units, with the state projecting a need of 37,000 ICU beds.

“The rate of increase in the number of cases portends a total overwhelming of our hospital system,” Cuomo said.

After years of hospital closures and bed reductions designed to make the health care system more efficient, New York is now facing a daunting task to rapidly make tens of thousands of hospital beds available.

Since 2003 there have been 18 hospital closures in New York City, with the most recent in 2014, when Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn closed and was replaced by a freestanding emergency room.
Those downsizing decisions often came after years of facilities losing tens of millions of dollars with no feasible solution to make them financially sustainable.
In the case of the pending projects at Beth Israel and Mount Vernon, hospital officials previously shared how their facilities were less than half full on average. More procedures can now be done in the outpatient setting, the officials said.
The state is experiencing a massive increase in demand for hospital beds, including critical-care beds. The governor said about double the number that currently exist could be required.
Mount Sinai Beth Israel already has received approval from state officials to move forward with its plan to convert its 696-bed hospital campus on East 16th Street into a 70-bed hospital and to create a 115-bed behavioral health facility at Rivington House on the Lower East Side. Crain’s reported Thursday that Rivington House could be available to treat a surge in Covid-19 patients.
Mount Sinai is “offering all of its assets for possible use to treat Covid patients,” a spokeswoman for the health system said. She said the outbreak doesn’t affect the system’s approved plans.

Montefiore Mount Vernon is seeking approval to close its 121-bed hospital and open a freestanding emergency department and ambulatory care offices elsewhere in that city.
Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow, state Sens. Jamaal Bailey and Alessandra Biaggi and Westchester County legislator Lyndon Williams also wrote to Cuomo this week to block Montefiore’s plans. Health care unions 1199SEIU and the state Nurses Association signed on to the letter.
“We call on the management of Montefiore to place the public health above its profit motives in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic,” they wrote.
Montefiore hadn’t set a closure date, beyond saying Mount Vernon would close near the end of the year. A spokeswoman said the system couldn’t address postponement.
“We want to emphasize that the hospital is open and ready to serve the community in the face of this health crisis,” she said. “In addition, Montefiore is looking at every available option for beds to meet the needs of the communities we serve.”
At Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, part of the One Brooklyn Health System, officials have decided to pause plans to convert the hospital into a post-acute care and rehabilitation campus, CEO LaRay Brown said.

Some of the groups that joined Community Catalyst and the nurses union in seeking to stop the hospitals’ plans include the Commission on the Public’s Health System, the Community Service Society and Medicaid Matters New York.
The state said Friday morning that 7,102 people had been diagnosed with Covid-19 in New York, including 2,950 cases that were newly identified. New York City has 4,408 confirmed cases, which is more than triple the number of any state in the country. The actual number of cases is likely higher, but few people have been tested. New York has ramped up its testing to about 10,000 people a day.
https://www.crainsnewyork.com/coronavirus/hospitals-downsizing-plans-draw-criticism-outbreak-grows