NYAPRS Note: After months of community advocacy, government stop-gaps, and possible buy-outs, it seems that the saga of Long Island College Hospital may finally be winding down. Proposals to innovatively rescue the failing hospital were abandoned in the past few weeks, as no bidder was able to offer a sustainable and affordable proposal to help the facility transition. Other hospitals in the borough will be faced with meeting the needs of community members who may have previously relied on LICH. These hospitals are already restructuring programs to effectively deal with the community needs of local clients, and will likely be utilizing DSRIP funds to secure transformative initiatives toward their ultimate survival.
Tentative Deal is Reached, but it Won’t Save LICH
Crain’s NY Business; Irina Ivanova, 5/22/2014
Community activists have given up their fight to keep a full-service hospital at Long Island College Hospital in a tentative deal that would keep a slimmed-down emergency room at the site in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.
All services at the hospital will shutter at midnight with the exception of the emergency department, which will remain open until the State University of New York hands its ownership off to another operator, North Shore-LIJ and developer the Peebles Corp., with the goal of wholly managing the site by Sept. 1.
Even then, however, LICH will not return to its full-service ways. An agreement reached Thursday morning between a bidder, LICH and the community groups that had sued to keep it open states that only an emergency room will remain, and it will not include an intensive-care unit. The emergency room is no longer accepting ambulances, but the agreement states that ambulance service will return as soon as possible and no later than July 15.
“The continuity of care of services offered at LICH is paramount,” the so-called statement of principles read.
But those principles, and the community groups behind them, have finally bowed to reality. Despite politically charged rhetoric and headline-grabbing lawsuits, the community activists were unable to find a hospital operator willing to keep LICH open.
Their attorney, Jim Walden, conceded as much Thursday. In exchange for dropping all litigation against SUNY and the state Department of Health, Mr. Walden agreed to a “statement of principles” that simply requires the Peebles Corp. to commission an independent community needs assessment, which would establish whether or not a full-service hospital is needed in Cobble Hill.
The Peebles Corp. would be required to add any additional medical services determined to be necessary, but it would not be able to close the emergency room—even if it were deemed unnecessary.
Litigants had fought for a full-service hospital in earlier negotiations with North Shore-LIJ, which took the position that keeping was untenable and therefore non-negotiable, according to one source. The statement of principle suggests that North Shore-LIJ is confident that an independent assessment will agree with its position that a full service community hospital is unnecessary.
Mr. Walden, the attorney, changed his rhetoric in court Wednesday to tout the benefits of a “full-service, state-of-the-art emergency department,” calling the emergency department the “heart” of a hospital.
The agreement depends on the Peebles Corp., successfully negotiating a redevelopment deal with SUNY. Both parties say a final accord is near.
Few others in the courtroom called the settlement a victory.
“This is not what we fought for for 18 months,” said Julie Semente, an ICU nurse. “A full emergency room is one that is connected to a hospital.”
Several nurses said that, without an intensive care unit and surgical facilities as backup, a freestanding emergency department wouldn’t be able to treat the most severe medical cases.
Jeff Strabone, a member of the Cobble Hill Association and one of Mr. Walden’s clients, said he was “disappointed that … we got so little.” But he hopes that the inclusion of a community needs assessment sets a precedent, so that “in the future medical decisions are based on need.”
“Incredibly, the state did no assessment of need when they decided to close LICH,” he said. “This should set a precedent so that never happens again.”
The university will voluntarily keep emergency room services at LICH operating until May 27, with the expectation of reaching a deal with the Peebles Corp. before that date.
Out of 158 nurses still working at LICH, some 47 are working in the emergency department, said a New York State Nurses Association spokeswoman. The remainder, along with nearly 200 members of union 1199 SEIU, will be escorted out at midnight.
The unions had been part of the initial lawsuit to keep LICH from closing, but did not join in the latest motion.