State officials are considering using hundreds of millions of dollars to construct a new hospital in Brooklyn that could replace the perennially troubled Brookdale Hospital, according to a person familiar with conversations about the funding.
The money would come from a $700 million pot set aside in Governor Andrew Cuomo's budget proposal for capital construction in east or central Brooklyn.
A new hospital would make sense for Brooklyn, said Stephen Berger, an investment banker who chaired the New York State Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century, a panel formed in 2005 to study the changing state of New York's health care delivery system.
The commission predicted that some New York City hospitals would close in future years because of high overhead and infrastructure costs and changing national trends in health care delivery.
Berger has previously called for closing some Brooklyn hospitals and consolidating others, but a new hospital in the borough would be a good idea, provided that it differed from the 20th century notion of a hospital.
"It can’t just be a 12-story building with lots of beds," Berger said. "Rather, it must be the center of a health network that provides for emergency and acute care while also embracing an ambulatory care model that focuses on managing population health and keeping people from having to use the acute care portion of the building."
13 comments:
Crappy didn't mention it so I will - there's been no discussion of a replacement of St Johns (Elmhurst) and Mary Immaculate (Jamaica) - both were owned by also defunct St Vincents Catholic Medical Center. The properties are scheduled to become housing eventually.
forest hills and rego park there are urgent care centers popping up everywhere. most of the people who go to the ER can be treated cheaper at urgent care
Queens already has one large hospital , Queens Hospital.
It can handle 2.5 million Queens residents most efficiently thank you.
With all the homeless shelters opening up we'll need a hospital to treat their injuries and illnesses.
injuries like paper cuts and illnesses like a cold that only emergency rooms can handle.
Urgent care is not an ER. For people who are sick they need an ER. For a cold you can go to an urgent care.
The loss of St. Johns, Mary Immaculate, Parkway and Peninsula still leaves some choices in Queens. Mt. Sinai Queens (Astoria), Elmhurst, NYH Queens (Booth), NSUH Forest Hills, Queens Hospital and LIJ can service the population pretty well.
There will always be pressure to open a hospital for the SEIU and Construction patronage jobs. It takes a strong person to do the right thing.
NY Politicians will never be accused of being strong. They are almost without exception weak cowards with their hand in the till.
Anons. 3 and 5:
According to whom?
Anon #3 was being sarcastic.
There is an overabundance of hospital beds. That includes Queens. Don't confuse a busy ED with a full hospital. Don't confuse a full hospital with not enough acute care beds.
Many patients who come into the ED are better served by an Urgent Care or Primary Care Provider (PCP). Most who come into the hospital do not need to be admitted. (recent numbers in the 70-80% are discharged same day) Add to that Medicare rules that they won't pay the hospital unless the patient stays two overnights (not two days) and the push to discharge people with short term follow up by social work, visiting nurses, or pcp's will empty out the hospitals.
The ones left will be the really sick, those that should really be in nursing homes, and, as seen often in NYC, those with no green card and therefore can't be placed or have out patient follow up because they are undocumented (illegal). There was a story of a guy with a head injury in Elmhurst hospital for over a year and counting because he had no insurance to pay for long term placement.
Opening a hospital is not an answer. More efficient use of resources is.
And you can add Flushing Hospital and St. Mary's Childrens to the list in Queens.
"Don't confuse a busy ED with a full hospital."
The EDs are full because the patients are waiting for beds. A family member of mine was in the ER at Elmhurst for 3 days before she could be moved upstairs.
My sympathy for your family member. Situations like that make a miserable situation significantly worse.
I have worked at Elmhurst (years ago). The floors are filled with people who didn't need admission or no longer need admission but can't be sent home or transferred for insurance, financial, and/or legal reasons. That is not to say they are healthy, but they no longer need the acute level of care provided by a hospital. Even the ones with insurance no longer pay for the hospital stay after the ICD9 code allowed days runs out. (For pneumonia that was 3 days, whether you were a 50 year old smoker with pneumonia, or an 88 year old with diabetes and the flu). Lots of people in beds, no income being generated, no way to clean out the backlog. That is why hospitals go bankrupt. Building a new hospital would not solve this, only add a new one to get crushed under ever expanding regulation and mandates, and decreased reimbursement.
One promising solution: a free standing ED. That way there is acute care that can see everyone. Most will be discharged, they can have a short stay <24 hours unit, and anyone significantly sick can be transferred to an inpatient bed in a local hospital. This is being tried at the site of the old St. Vincents. (Backed by Lenox Hill (or North Shore))
Queens really doesn't need a new hospital. They need the ones they have to run smarter.
Glad I'm within emergency response distance to Long Island Jewish Hospital. THAT IS the ONLY good hospital in Queens. NY Hospital Queens is , maybe, second best. Although a friend moved from LIJ to NY Queens wound up dying in NYQ. Over building without adequate infrastructure and emergency facilities equals DEATH!
We need more hospitals to open. They closed all of Catholic Medical Center hospitals-Mary Immaculate, St. Johns, St. Josoph, St.Mary, Parkway,Pennisula, St. Vincents. Come on where are all these sick people to go??? Open these hospitals up again. Urgent Care Centers is NOT a hospital people.
we need more hospitals in Jamaica, Queens Far Rockaway,Queens..ect
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