This ruling arrived five days after a state Supreme Court judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking to block the facility's closure.
After Judge Jeffrey Pearlman tossed the lawsuit filed by a community coalition this past August, Mount Sinai announced Beth Israel's closing date of March 26.
Mount Sinai reportedly moved quickly to empty the hospital on First Avenue and 16th Street. The coalition's pro-bono lawyer, Arthur Schwartz, claimed this week that "every one of the 80 or so admitted patients has either been discharged or transferred to other Mount Sinai facilities. The Intensive Care Unit has been closed. The Cardiac Catheterization Unit has been closed. Ambulances have been notified to not bring patients to Beth Israel because no one is being admitted," per Our Town.
A Mount Sinai spokesperson confirmed to Gothamist that as of Thursday afternoon, "there were no in-patients at the hospital and all in-patient services had ended,” Riegelhaupt said. "As planned, our [emergency department] remains open and will remain open until closure."
As Gothamist reported: "Justice John Higgit put the stay in place pending a determination on the case by a panel of judges."
Mount Sinai officials have said Beth Israel lost $1 billion in the last decade due to dwindling cash reserves and reduced bed counts.
Beth Israel was founded in 1890 on the Lower East Side and moved to its current location on 16th Street and First Avenue in 1929.
They're inevitably going to be able to close it and that sucks. We haven't replaced the beds lost from St Vincent's... we *really* needed those beds during covid. There weren't enough ICU beds for patients. Somehow these beds need to be maintained.
ReplyDeleteWe vote for leaders that will help provide us with health care... police protection and education. Our politicians have failed us repeatedly. The hospital should never have closed. We should have been able to negotiate for a small presence like the West Village established with the closure of St. Vincents. But we have pols who can't even keep the streets clean let alone do something basic for the community. They're pothole pols not leaders concerned with their voters' needs.
ReplyDeleteStark metaphor for the state of US healthcare. Profit above all.
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