Buffalo gets a big new stadium, Queens gets a little new ER

 

Queens Chronicle

Five hundred guests attended a groundbreaking ceremony Friday to celebrate the $150 million expansion of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center’s Emergency Department, which will double in size to accommodate more than 150,000 patients annually.

The funding is a grant from the Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program.

Despite having to attend a funeral later that day of a former first responder who died because of a 9/11-related illness, Gov. Hochul made a keynote speech at the Level 1 trauma center in Richmond Hill because she wanted to emphasize that the time of disinvestment in Southeast Queens has ended.

“This is a day of a new beginning,” Hochul said at the June 16 event. “For so many years and decades ... people thought that the people of this community didn’t have political clout to make real transformative changes. That time is over, my friends. With this new beginning, we say that this community matters. This hospital matters.”

Hochul thanked the doctors, nurses, staff and other healthcare workers for their efforts in saving the lives of people who suffer from mental health issues, along with those who fall victim to fentanyl and opioids or contract Covid-19.

“We are going to enhance our psychiatric services, because my God, people are going through so much right now,” Hochul said. “All the work to save lives from overdoses ... we are doing that in real time. We have so much more to do.”

The governor said that the new facility was delayed a bit because of the pandemic, but the commitment of the hospital to get the expansion done while taking care of patients during the height of the spread of coronavirus further highlighted the need for safety-net hospitals.

“There were a lot of hopes and dreams and then in the middle of it all there was a pandemic,” she said. “This demonstrated the compassion and incredible resiliency of this organization and so many of your members, from nurses to doctors to the people who worked in the kitchens, the custodial staff, the doulas and everybody else [who] pulled together to save this community.”

Bruce Flanz, JHMC’s president and CEO, said the hospital was at the epicenter of the pandemic, but with the new funding it will be able to serve more people.

“When completed, the Emergency Department will double in size,” Flanz said.

The hospital will go from having one trauma bay to four major trauma bays, from one isolation room to 22, and the number of treatment areas will nearly triple, he said. There will also be two new intensive care units: a 12-bed neuro-ICU and a 10-bed ICU.

“When the project is complete we will have a total of 48 intensive care unit beds,” Flanz said. “The project will also add much needed space to our mental health program and to our CPAC,” or chest pain center.

Flanz said the improvements are not just necessary to the community, but to its uniformed officers, who say JHMC is their preferred choice for treatment.

Officer Brett Boller, who was shot earlier this year in Jamaica, shared the sentiment.

“I had multiple surgeons and multiple teams work on me,” Boller told the Queens Chronicle. “They communicated well to my family about what was going on and the recovery process. They made me and my family comfortable.”

Lindsey Boller, the officer’s sister, told the Chronicle she was grateful for the care her brother received.

“I’m studying to be a nurse one day and it was just really inspiring to see how great all the nurses and all the doctors were to him,” said the aspiring healthcare professional.

NYPD Chief Kevin Williams, commanding officer of Patrol Borough Queens South, shared their sentiments.

“I’m grateful for their care and the services for our members in the service,” Williams told the Chronicle. “When they come to get treated it’s first-class and we appreciate it.”

U.S. Rep. Greg Meeks (D-Jamaica) said it was a 10-year journey to get here.

“I want to say thank you to all the providers,” Meeks said. “What do we have in life if we don’t have health?”

Meeks’ 700,000 constituents look to JHMC for treatment, said the congressman.

“If it wasn’t for the members of the state Legislature doing their part, this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.

Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman (D-Springfield Gardens) told the Chronicle that Springfield Gardens doesn’t have a hospital so the constituents in her area look to JHMC for help.

“I don’t have any hospitals in my district,” Hyndman said. “While growing up, everyone knew if you had a car accident, if you were hurt on your bicycle, if there was a shooting, this is the place to come. The chances of you surviving was high because this is a Trauma 1 Center.”

Hyndman’s godson, who was wounded after falling through shower glass, was treated at JHMC.

Borough President Donovan Richards, who was born at the hospital in 1983, was also in attendance.

“We’ve been talking for many years now about the need to invest in healthcare especially coming out of this pandemic,” Richards said. “Today we are changing that. Like the congressman said, it’s about ensuring that no matter what your socioeconomic status is, no matter who you love, no matter what your immigration status is, at Jamaica Hospital, you are welcomed.”

 We could have built 4 more hospitals with the money that went to that Bills stadium.

Shootings rise in Southeast Queens and there is only one hospital to treat the victims

THE CITY

 During the first 2020 presidential debate in June, then-candidate Mayor Bill de Blasio touted New York City’s drop in crime. But even as the number of shootings has dramatically decreased across the city over the past decade, a troubling trend has emerged: The proportion of people dying from gunshots has been rising in some pockets.

Data obtained from the New York Police Department and analyzed by The Trace/Measure of America/THE CITY shows this problem has been most severe in Queens.

We mapped the 12,000-plus shootings recorded by the NYPD between 2010 and October 2018, and our analysis found that the further away someone was from a Level I or II trauma center when they were shot, the more likely they were to die.

Nowhere fared worse than neighborhoods in southern Queens, particularly those below Hillside Avenue, where more residents live further than three miles from a trauma center than anywhere else in the city.

There used to be more trauma coverage in the borough. But in February 2009, two hospitals closed, and one of them contained a Level I trauma center.

In the following two years, the gunshot fatality rate in Queens jumped from under 16% to more than 23%. That put the borough’s gunshot fatality rate 30% higher than in the rest of the city.

Since then, every year except for 2016, the death rate from gunshots in Queens has been higher than in the city as a whole.

 “How well your trauma system works, and how good your care is across the country is a big mosaic, and where you are will determine your outcomes,” said Dr. Robert Winchell, the former chair of the trauma systems committee for the American College of Surgeons.

Today, most areas of New York City have access to multiple trauma centers while southern Queens has only one: Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. But financial documents, audits and state reports indicate the facility is ailing.

The hospital was in the red 12 of the 13 years between 2005 and 2017. It finished that year with a deficit of more than $66 million, according to IRS filings and an independent audit.

“I’m not sure how you keep the doors open with that,” said Winchell, who is also chief of New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center’s trauma division.

I'm not sure you can either when the city would rather spend $11,000,000,000 on tower jails.

Hospital code red

From the NY Post:

At least six of the city’s private hospitals are on life support and could be candidates for retrenchment or even closure, shocking financial records show.

The cash-strapped hospitals include Brookdale, Wyckoff Heights and Interfaith in Brooklyn, Westchester Square in The Bronx and Jamaica and Flushing in Queens.

The troubling deficits and crushing debt were spelled out by the hospitals’ own financial reports filed over the past two years with the state government.

Each of the hospitals’ accountants had warned, “These factors raise substantial doubt about the medical center’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

All the hospitals are considered “safety net” facilities that serve mostly poor, medically underserved neighborhoods.

* Jamaica Hospital had a deficit of $72.18 million in 2009. The Queens facility was “delinquent” in making contributions to union-worker benefit plans.

Despite its woes, Jamaica has agreed to provide one-year severance pay to all its vice presidents and senior managers if there’s a shakeup.

* Flushing Hospital had a deficit of $35.45 million in 2009. It had previously filed for bankruptcy protection in 1998.

Jamaica, Flushing and Brookdale are part of the MediSys Health Network.

Eight city hospitals have closed since 2007.

Queens may lose 3 more hospitals

From the NY Post:

One-third of New York City's private hospitals could lose their life support and shut down if Gov. Cuomo goes through with his vow to cut between $2 billion and $3 billion from the state's massive Medicaid program, The Post has learned.

"There are 10 to 12 hospitals that are teetering on the edge [statewide]," said Stephen Berger, a member of Cuomo's Medicaid redesign team, who previously headed a state hospital restructuring panel.

"How many of them are really necessary? How many can be saved? How many can be merged? That's what we have to ask," added Berger.

"Given the amount of money we are spending, we ought to be putting together a much more efficient health-care system with better patient care."

Many of the hospitals teetering on the brink of financial collapse are located in the city's poorer neighborhoods and serve a high number of patients covered by Medicaid, the public insurance program for the needy.

Hospitals considered to be in the fiscal intensive care unit include Brookdale, Kingsbrook, Wyckoff, Interfaith and Brooklyn in Brooklyn, Jamaica and Peninsula in Queens and many institutions in The Bronx including Westchester Square.

So we lost St. John's and Mary Immaculate and were told to go to Wyckoff and Jamaica. I wonder where they will tell us to go when they close those 2?

Other Van Wyck ramps on hold

From the Queens Chronicle:

A plan to close two exit ramps on the Van Wyck Expressway that was opposed by local community boards and the Queens Borough President’s Office has been suspended indefinitely.

The proposal was crafted by the city’s Economic Development Corp. and Department of Transportation and was designed to speed traffic flow into Kennedy International Airport, according to both agencies. The EDC confirmed this week that the proposal would be put on hiatus for now.

The plan would have closed the Jamaica Avenue off-ramp on the northbound side along with the Liberty Avenue off-ramp on the southbound side.

However, since it was announced earlier this summer, the proposed closures drew the ire of business and civic groups, and community boards 9, 10 and 12, who said it would negatively impact emergency vehicle traffic into Jamaica Hospital and hurt businesses in the area.

City officials had argued the closings would reduce car accidents on the Van Wyck while cutting travel time to the airport.

Mary Ann Carey, chairwoman of Community Board 9, said she would continue to oppose the plan if the city attempts to revive it.

“I am very pleased the they are not going to pursue this ridiculous idea,” she said. “I don’t understand the reasoning behind it.”

Carey said she had discussed what effect the closures would have with officials from Jamaica Hospital, and they had raised concerns about making it harder for ambulances and hospital staff to get to the facility.

She said the EDC had floated an idea where the exits would be closed for regular traffic but open to emergency hospital traffic, but Carey expressed doubt at the logistics of that plan.

“How is that going to happen?” she asked. “Are they going to have a cop sit at the exit ramp all day? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Also, Carey said closing the two exits would further congest traffic on roads like Liberty Avenue.

"It takes two to tango"

From the NY Post:

The state Health Department last month asked Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate MediSys Health Network -- which operates Jamaica Hospital in Queens and Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, among others.

According to a source familiar with the history of the Health Department's inquiry, Cuomo's probe will stay clear of MediSys' entanglements with Seminerio (which remain the US attorney's domain) -- but will rather look at accusations of breach of responsibility by the hospitals' boards.

We wouldn't be surprised if they find ample wrongdoing.

After all, judging by court documents, the MediSys-Seminerio partnership just may encapsulate almost everything that's wrong with the way Albany functions.

According to a sentencing report submitted by US Attorney Preet Bharara last year, MediSys affiliates paid more than $390,000 since the late '90s to retain Seminerio's sham "consulting" firm, while the assemblyman remained vigilant in protecting the hospitals' interests.

A MediSys spokesman insists that Seminerio was hired only to lobby for the company on the city and federal levels.

But this strains credulity -- especially since wiretapped conversations caught Seminerio telling CEO David Rosen about all the muscle he's throwing around for MediSys in Albany.

That, MediSys claims, was done purely of the assemblyman's own initiative.

Right.

Indeed, the feds caught Seminerio on tape telling ex-Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin (who was also put away for corruption) that he got into the "consulting" business after watching folks in the health-care industry -- Rosen, specifically -- get rich off of state funds that he helped secure.

(Rosen, incidentally, took home a salary of $2.2 million in 2006.)

EDC wants to close Van Wyck exits to Jamaica Hospital

From the Daily News:

A plan to speed traffic to JFK Airport by closing down two exit ramps on the Van Wyck Expressway is facing tough opposition from Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and three community boards.

Under the proposal, crafted by the city's Economic Development Corp. and Department of Transportation, the Jamaica Ave. off-ramp on the northbound side would be closed along with the Liberty Ave. off-ramp on the southbound side.

City officials have said the closings would reduce car accidents on the busy highway while cutting travel time to the airport.

EDC officials had originally told borough officials that they hoped to start the this plan this summer. But that timetable appears to have changed.

Jamaica Hospital, a Level 1 trauma center located on the southbound service road of the Van Wyck, sits in the middle of the proposed closure zone. Hospital officials have said they fear that closing exits will make it tougher for ambulances and staffers to get to the facility.

Marshall, along with representatives of Community Boards 9, 10 and 12 - whose neighborhoods would be affected by the plan - met with EDC and Transportation officials last week to hash out their concerns.

2 Children Killed in Springfield Gardens House Fire

NEW YORK (AP/1010 WINS) -- A fast-moving house fire in Queens killed two children and five other people have been injured.

The blaze broke out around 9 a.m. Thursday on 182nd Street in Springfield Gardens.

A 2-year-old boy and his 8-year-old brother were pulled from the flames and rushed to Jamaica Medical Center. Queens District Attorney Richard Brown confirms both children were pronounced dead at the hospital.

Two other children and three adults were also hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

The fire was brought under control around 10 a.m.

You're kidding!

From the Wall Street Journal:

At Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, the emergency room has expanded into a former café and conference area as hospital officials cope with double their patient capacity.

At New York Hospital Queens, patients in March waited an average of 17 hours to be placed in beds, sometimes being held in hallways, waiting rooms or sunrooms.

"If you want to think you're in a war-torn third-world country, just go to the ER at New York Hospital Queens on a Friday afternoon," said Dr. Paul Aaronson, president of the Queens County Medical Society.

As the closure of St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan sparks fear about the impact on the remaining hospitals, hospital employees and advocates in Queens say they continue to struggle with the effects of three hospital closures—two last year, and one the previous fall. The overcrowding problem, they say, is exacerbated by a growing elderly and immigrant population, and state cuts in hospital funding.

"Queens going in was significantly underbedded," said Kenneth E. Raske, president of Greater New York Hospital Association. "They have the lowest bed-to-population ratio of any of the boroughs."

With a potential state budget cuts on the way, Mr. Raske said it is imperative that the 10 remaining hospitals remain financially stable. "It could precipitate a public-health crisis if one of them were to go down," he said.

Husband stabs pregnant wife and sister-in-law

From the Daily News:

A Queens man - enraged because his wife refused to have an abortion - slashed her throat and then stabbed her sister in the stomach Monday night in front of a room full of children, police and relatives said.

The wounded wife, Petrona Kates, and her bleeding twin, Patricia Kates, both 36, fled their Jamaica residence about 8:45 p.m. and ran to a local bodega, desperately pleading for help.

The Kateses' cousin Lesia Wickham, 32, said that according to family members' account, Petrona Kates' husband, Fitzgerald Jolly, became furious after he returned from Philadelphia and learned his wife was pregnant.

Wickham said that as Jolly stormed out of the house, he "dropped the knife in a neighbor's yard and jumped in his vehicle and drove off." Cops later found the vehicle abandoned on the Whitestone Bridge, but Jolly's whereabouts are unknown, police said.

Petrona and Patricia Kates were both in stable condition last night at Jamaica Hospital, police said.

Borough hospitals still overwhelmed

From NY1:

Health care officials in Queens say the ripple effects of last year's hospital closures have presented new challenges, especially when it comes to emergency care.

From NY1:

Jamaica Hospital, located in southern Queens a mile away from the closed Mary Immaculate Hospital, is dealing with a steady increase of patients in its emergency room, trauma center and psychiatric emergency room.

From NY1:

Elmhurst Hospital is almost filled to capacity these days, and local officials hope the recently-closed St. John's Queens Hospital and Mary Immaculate Hospital can be used once again to provide Queens with much-needed hospital beds.

From NY1:

While the state gave $40 million to Queens's remaining hospitals for new facilities last year, local medical officials still say the state needs to invest more money in the borough's health care infrastructure.

Boy stabbed and thrown from car

QUEENS (WABC) -- Police are looking for the suspects who stabbed a 12-year-old boy and then apparently tossed him from a car.

According to authorities, FDNY/EMS responded to the scene around 9:15 Saturday night.

They say a woman spotted the boy staggering alongside Jackie Robinson Parkway near Cypress Avenue in Queens.

Reports say the boy was stabbed a dozen times in the back and neck, and then thrown out of a moving car.

The boy was rushed to Jamaica Hospital in critical condition.

Police were looking for at least two suspects, but further information was not immediately available.

Shady dealings at Long Island College Hospital

From the Daily News:

Since 1988, the vital, century-old LICH has been driven into the ground by a monolithic health system called Continuum, ruled by a former Ed Koch crony named Stanley Brezenoff, who is the Darth Vader of what Jack Newfield called the Permanent Government of New York.

In 1999, a $140 million bequest to LICH by Donald and Mildred Othmer of Brooklyn Heights apparently vanished into the Continuum ether. You can't find a bedpan in LICH paid for from that dough. Continuum, according to [medical director Dr. John] Romanelli, also sold off $50 million in LICH real estate "for which there is crazy Hollywood accounting."

"Now Continuum is asking state taxpayers to assume all the debts that they amassed," says Jeff Ruggiero, attorney for the LICH medical staff.

"And Continuum continues to act as an active parent, with Brezenoff negotiating the merger with Downstate behind closed doors, like a Tammany Hall deal," says Romanelli.

"We originally filed a complaint with the New York State Department of Health and the state attorney general in January 2008 alleging that Continuum was running an illegal operation by seizing complete control over LICH without the necessary approvals," says Ruggiero. "We had witnesses, a half-dozen doctors, some members of the LICH board, who traveled to Albany, ready to testify that Continuum was behaving as an 'active' parent rather than a 'passive' parent of LICH. Which is illegal. DOH never called a single witness."

Instead DOH gave Continuum a pass.

This is because nobody works the bureaucracy better than Brezenoff, the quintessential political "fixer."

Another member of the Permanent Government, state Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio of Queens recently pleaded guilty in federal court to receiving $500,000 in bribes via the MediSys Health Network - that had a murky relationship with Jamaica Hospital, not unlike Continuum's with LICH - to influence DOH officials to approve Jamaica Hospital's takeover of Mary Immaculate Hospital.

The U.S. attorney for the Southern District's sentencing memo, and the FBI wiretap transcripts of Seminerio, offer a disturbing MRI of how deeply political corruption is encoded in the DNA of the Permanent Government and the health care system of New York. On these tapes, Seminerio talks to or mentions various DOH officials, pols and players like Joe Bruno, Shelly Silver, convicted ex-Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin and, of course, Stanley Brezenoff.

Jamaica Hospital adds new beds

From the Times Ledger:

Jamaica Hospital has been making progress in its efforts to expand its services to not only handle the void left after Queens lost two major hospitals, but also to serve the influx of patients, the medical center’s administrator said last week.

The hospital completed part of the renovation of its facilities to include 14 new medical surgery beds. The expansion is part of a multimillion-dollar effort to meet the growing needs of patients in southeast Queens who head to the hospital for both urgent and long-term care, according to David P. Rosen, president and chief executive officer of Jamaica Hospital.

The new beds are on the sixth floor of the hospital, at 89-00 Van Wyck Expwy. The floor used to hold three auditoriums, clinical departments and medical offices, according to Rosen.

Those facilities were moved to the hospital’s former nursing and rehabilitation center, Rosen said. Work will continue for the rest of the year and when completed the floor will have a total of 39 beds.

Since the closing of Mary Immaculate and St. John’s hospitals in the spring, other Queens medical facilities have reported great increases in emergency room visits. Jamaica Hospital has seen a 20 percent increase in ER visits, according to Rosen.

Judge not sympathetic toward Two-Ton Tony

From the Queens Campaigner:

After the attorney representing former state Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio argued that his client was a hardworking public servant who bent over backward for his constituents, U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald expressed reservations about the defense’s statements.

“Someone who is elected is supposed to support his constituents without being paid more than his salary,” Buchwald said.

It was a phrase Buchwald frequently repeated several times throughout the defense’s daylong arguments at the Oct. 30 pre-sentencing hearing for Seminerio, a politician from Richmond Hill who pleaded guilty in June to taking money from Jamaica Hospital administrators in exchange for lobbying state health officials on their behalf.

Will Jamaica Hospital be the next to close?

From the Queens Tribune:

With another flu season looming, the viability of at least one “safety net” hospital is in danger. In a report to Trustees dated June 26, independent financial auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers wrote that “Jamaica [Hospital]’s recurring deficiencies […] raise substantial doubt about Jamaica’s ability to continue as a going concern.

“[...] Jamaica has recurring losses from operations, a working capital deficiency of $12,408,000 at December 31, 2008 and an unrestricted net deficit of $52,733,000.”

The report continues, “There can be no assurance that management’s plans will be sufficient or timely enough to generate sufficient cash to meet its operating needs and achieve financial stability for Jamaica.”

According to the audit, Medisys – which operates Jamaica Hospital and Flushing Hospital, two other hospitals and dozens of ambulatory care clinics – is also in trouble: “The consolidated financial statements of MediSys reflect a working capital deficiency and net deficit that raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.”

“This is on us,” said David Rosen, CEO and President of Medisys. “It puts us in an extremely compromised position, financially speaking.”

While repeated requests for an explanation of Jamaica’s yearly financial statements were not addressed by the hospital, the unpublicized audit confirms that the hospital’s finances are currently in dire straits and, according to hospital officials, this years’ flu season will only exacerbate the situation.

“The demographic in this service area is such that there is high percentage of uninsured patients and illegal immigrants who do not qualify for any coverage,” said Rosen. “This is particularly apparent in the ER.”