Thursday, September 17, 2009

Flushing Hospital on its last leg?


From the Daily News:

A Queens judge tossed out a record $15 million jury award won by a Flushing Hospital nurse who said she endured years of sexual harassment by a top-ranking doctor.

Queens Supreme Court Justice Timothy Flaherty cited the nonprofit hospital's crumbling finances in concluding the jury was inflamed more by "passion than reason."

"It is teetering on financial ruin," Flaherty noted, saying the verdict would "further imperil the very survival of the institution."

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seriously, $15 million?!?!? From the hospital?!!? That sounds nuts.

Anonymous said...

The only way I would find myself in Flushing Hospital is if I suddenly passed out on its doorstep and wound up being dragged in unconcious into the ER!

The quality of its health care has been on its last leg for years.

It's a low rated hospital.

When my mom broke her leg the ambulance was initially going to drive her to FH.

I insisted that if the driver attempted to take her there I would promptly file suit.

They were reminded by me of (I think it's known as) the 20 minute rule...that a patient can be driven to any hospital of their choice provided that it didn't exceed a 20 minute drive. (I think that still holds).

Then I quickly climbed into the ER ambulance and accompanied her to Long Island Jewish Hospital.

Apparently even Stephan Mills, FH's former director bailed out and is now at New York Hospital Queens (Booth Memorial).

Now that's beginning to go down hill too.

Glad we live close enough to use LIJ's facilities if needed.

Anonymous said...

Universal Healthcare for All!

Anonymous said...

How convenient that Queens, the capital of diversity and crammed with illegal aliens, closed two hospitals and others (Jamaica & Flushing) are on the brink of bankruptcy. Queens sounds ripe to be the model for Government Takeover of Hospitals. The Government will save us and will inject ObamaCare right here in NYC. That's been the plan all along!

Adolf Bloomhitler said...

Just part of my punishment plan for Queens. And you think I don't read your comments? Dwell on this...I help to create lots more housing and take away your requisite services. Ha Ha Ha Ha

4 more years (at least)!

Unknown said...

Flushing Hospital makes a lot of money, believe it or not.

The biggest problems? David Rosen lining his pockets with the Medisys hospitals' money, and FLushing's increasing need to support Brookdale and Jamaica, which are really floundering in financial ruin.

And to Anonymous: Flushing Hospital's healthcare is by no means on it's last leg. All hospitals will kill you just the same, the only difference is at LIJ, they kiss your ass while they make you wait 4+ hours to see a doctor. At Flushing? You get seen within 1 hour.

People like you, healthcare snobs, thta only trust hospitals with a "name" are the problem.

All these "top-rated" hospitals? I know an EMT who just recently died due to severe negligence at Columbia-Presbyterian/Cornell. So much for being one of the best in the country.

Anonymous said...

Since my father is on a ventilator and in a nursing home, he has had to be admitted to both New York Hospital Queens and Flushing Hospital due to infections from the ventilator. The quality of care between the two hospitals regarding ventilator patients is like night and day. New York Hospital is the worst for ventilator patients. My father almost died due to their negligence and loss of records. Complaints were filed with New York Hospital's Quality Control Department and to the board. After that, I informed the nursing home not to send him to New York Hospital anymore in an emergency. At Flushing Hospital, nurses and aides respond quickly to any concerns or emergencies of the ventilator patients and everyone stays on top of everything. I pray that Flushing Hospital stays open since I do not want to subject my father to the nightmare that he and our family went through at New York Hospital

Anonymous said...

And to Anonymous: Flushing Hospital's healthcare is by no means on it's last leg. All hospitals will kill you just the same, the only difference is at LIJ, they kiss your ass while they make you wait 4+ hours to see a doctor. At Flushing? You get seen within 1 hour.
+++++++++++++
LIJ is one vastly hyped,overrated JOKE.
my mother-in-law was taken there with what is KNOWN as a "hot abdomen",rigid,board like,high fever and PAIN.....LIJ dicks around for hours,has her walking to the x-ray dept and then her appendix burst--same for another one --what kind of morons do they have working triage and their dept ?
and as for the units ? crap from another patient lying around for days,they weremost politely ASKED to please remove it--crap on the window sills and UDER the bed,then told to please remove it as this is a possible source of cross infection- and then i literally threw it into the hallway not giving a damn who it might hit--filthy bathrooms as well-
We've had family in eLmhurst,bellevue and even western queens/mt.sinai with much HIGHER STANDARDS for physicians,nursing,ancillary staff and CLEANLINESS.
aanyway,where's this nurse get off for putting up with SEVEN YEARS of bs ? too bad i wasn't on the jury. 7 years ??? then sues the hospital ?

Anonymous said...

Of course Flushing Hospital makes lots of money.

Isn't it a prime Medcaid mill destination for immigrants?

Anonymous said...

Don't confuse LIJ/North Shore in Manhasset with LIJ in Floral Park.

The former is known for its "sucky" nursing care...whereas the latter (along with St. Francis Hospital) does some of the best coronary bypass surgery in the country.

Jamaica & Elmhurst Hospitals' ERs are great for treating gunshot, stab wounds, etc. where LIJ wouldn't know WTF to do!

Anonymous said...

Actually my waiting time at LIJ (the last time I visited it's ER) to see a doctor was about 14 minutes.

Anonymous said...

My wife's friend was receiving some post surgical rehab care at a nursing facility when she was admitted to nearby LIJ Queens for a resulting problem.

Then for some reason she was transferred soon afterward from LIJ to New York Hospital Queens who had performed the original surgery.

She died there days later.

Did LIJ dump her back to NYHQ because they didn't want their low mortality rate spoiled?

Anonymous said...

It's all about your doctor(s) and much more important...the nursing staff.

That's the most critical factor regarding WHATEVER hospital you're in!

Anonymous said...

H-m-m-m....
somebody here obviously works for Flushing Hospital!

Anonymous said...

Try to check on your doctors' education credentials...your (and his) hospitals' mortality figures...the reputation of a hospital's nursing care.

At least then you're off to a good start.

Some detailed on-line medical info you might have to pay for but isn't your well being worth it?

Anonymous said...

I suppose those snobby hospitals' medical stats can be hyped so they come out looking great...just like Bloomberg's teaching-to-the-test educational scores imply that students are actually learning.

In the end, it's all about medical craftsmanship and infection prevention

Anonymous said...

Even mortality rates aren't a reliable figure. Places like Flushing Hospital and Parkway, when it still existed, are surrounded by long term nursing/rehab facilitiesm and therefore, much of their patient population consists of 80+ year old patients from nursing homes.

Would it be a big surprise to have a high death rate? Even the snobbiest of the snobby hospitals wouldn't be able to save them.

Anonymous said...

For the first genius, the award should have been thrown out regardless of the hospitals financial status. If you heard the facts of the case, but Brooklyn, Queens and Bronx juries are notorious for these insane "lottery" awards. I don't care if Flushing was "Flush" with money. It was excessive and should have been tossed. And if these morons ever realized this is not imaginary money that they award in these cases. When they award tens of million in city cases, that money has to come from somewhere. we all pay. But they never get that.

For the next genius, Flushing is not "making a lot of money" nor does it have millions in endowments like some of the other big places who really do little for the community. The hospital is doing a little better financially because of the additional patients and growth of quality programs at the hospital but that is day to day operational and nowhere near addresses the need of upgrading the facility, capital for equipment and rebuilding. Two different things.

Third for the next genius Flushing's income and finances are separate and apart from the other MediSys facilities so if you don't know what you are speaking about you should just shut up and not spread mis-information.

Queens needs Flushing Hospital but Flushing would have been a distant memory had MediSys not stepped in to try to keep it going 10 years ago.

Anonymous said...

If you are having a baby don't even think about going to Flushing Hospital. The doctor was great, but the care and service was not good at all. My daughter just had her baby there this past Monday, and I will not recommend this hospital to anybody, they didn't take care of her, they didn't show her anything and she is a first time mother, all they wanted was for her to breastfeed and she didn't even had any milk!!!!!!! please DON'T have your baby there......

Anonymous said...

flushing hospital took care of my sister when she came back from overseas after loosing her third child

the hospital overseas did a bad job
she was admitted to flushing hospital
the doctor are caring and nurses caring

we are very thankful to the doctors and nurses for there great job