Sunday, September 17, 2023

Reports: Mount Sinai will phase out Beth Israel on 1st Avenue and 16th Street

Photo by Stacie Joy

ICYMI: Last Thursday, citing ongoing financial difficulties, including an expected $150-million loss this year, Mount Sinai announced that it will phase out its Beth Israel facility on 16th Street and First Avenue. 

Hospital officials said this in a statement: "This decision comes after recent financial changes, including significant increases in labor and supply costs, and years of decreasing inpatient census as care continues to move to outpatient and non-hospital settings." 

Officials did not provide a timeline for the closure, stating that the emergency department will still receive patients. 

There's speculation that Mount Sinai Beth Israel, the parent corporation of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, might try to sell the property it owns on 14th Street and Second Avenue, 13th Street and Second Avenue, and 13th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue — which "could fetch up to $70 million if sold for apartment-building construction," per the Post back in February. 

Following the news of the closure, local elected officials released this statement... Find more coverage here:

CBS 2 
NY1 
Bloomberg 
Our Town 

Previously on EV Grieve: 

7 comments:

  1. SURPRISE SURPRISE. We all saw this coming. The CITY should take over this hospital and keep it OPEN.

    Let's not have ANOTHER St. Vincents Hospital situation that hands over choice parcels to developers of "luxury" housing.

    --Chris Flash

    ReplyDelete
  2. @8:59PM: I agree with you completely. It's sad to see, in this city (and state!) where real estate developers *own* the government, that what's "good" or "helpful" or "necessary" to the people who live here has now become truly unimportant in decision-making.

    It's all about the bottom line, and to hell with what PEOPLE actually NEED.

    Mt. Sinai is now more about real estate $$$ than it is about medical care.

    I imagine we'll end up with a medical desert in that area, where your choice of hospital will be: NYU Langone or NYU Langone. Or Bellevue.

    I also imagine that Mt. Sinai is going to disembowel the Eye and Ear Infirmary, b/c they can't see that you should LEAVE ALONE a well-functioning specialty hospital that's served (and continues to serve) New Yorkers since the late 1800's, AND which is at a location that everyone KNOWS. They don't recognize the value of consistency and the continuity of purpose & of care. Watch them create a zillion stupid "satellite" locations that make you run all over to get care that is now available in ONE location.

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  3. Yep. More "luxury" housing in our future. All about the bottom line and nothing else. Predatory capitalism rules in a state run by the lobbyists of the real estate industry. With Adams in their pocket bet this will happen very smoothly. Bye bye to Eye and Ear too. Vive la révolution!

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  4. Thus residents will need to travel much further for medical care.

    But no worries as folks - especially elderly/disabled/families with kids - can just hop on Citibike to get to the hospital far far away.
    Must ensure compliance with the bike lobby DOT edicts.

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    Replies
    1. Bike lobby? That's a stretch. Real estate lobby? Criminally under funded health care in the United States? Don't see how you can blame this closing on the DOT.

      Delete
  5. The closing or downsizing of Beth Israel is terrible the people of the LES/EV need quality medical care facilities a lot more than they need more $4,000 a month apartments.

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  6. After being taken over by MtSinai, I was admitted to the hospital, treatment was so bad I discharged myself

    ReplyDelete

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