BY PHYLLIS ECKHAUS | The last roadblock to Mount Sinai closing Beth Israel hospital may soon be removed.
At a hearing on Thurs., Aug. 8, New York State Supreme Court Judge Nicholas Moyne warned he was “likely [within] a couple of days” to dismiss without prejudice the lawsuit brought by community advocates to halt closure. (“Dismiss without prejudice” means the case can be refiled at a later date.)
“I don’t relish this,” he said. “And this doesn’t mean I approve of everything that was done by Mount Sinai or the Department of Health, but this is…I think the only course that I can take.”
Dismissal would mean the end of the temporary restraining order, or T.R.O., the judge had previously issued, which is the one remaining legal hurdle to shuttering the hospital.
On July 26, the New York State Department of Health granted conditional approval to the closure of Beth Israel. Moyne expressed concern that D.O.H.’s action “mooted” the current lawsuit and that without clear legal authority to proceed with the case, he could be “reversed on a technicality on appeal.”
The judge invited community advocates to file a new lawsuit challenging D.O.H.’s grant of approval and asked Arthur Schwartz, the lead attorney, how long that would take.
“Tuesday,” Schwartz replied.
After a back-and-forth about whether that timeframe included sleep, the judge advised Schwartz to “get busy.”
Moyne noted a new case could mean a new judge.
Attorneys for Mount Sinai Health System told Moyne that it would take just four weeks to close Beth Israel were his T.R.O. to be lifted.
During the 90-minute hearing, the judge asked pointed questions about the conditions D.O.H. has imposed Mount Sinai and D.O.H.’s oversight of those conditions.
A D.O.H. attorney said that all conditions save one have been met. These include agreements to transfer behavioral-health patients elsewhere, to fund additional ambulances Downtown, and to support expansion of Bellevue Hospital’s emergency department. A further condition involves the launching of a new urgent-care center on the campus of New York Eye & Ear Infirmary.
The urgent-care center will open only once Beth Israel is closed since it will utilize some of the shuttered hospital’s medical equipment. As D.O.H. requires, it will be open 24 hours a day during its first three months, with hours after that to be determined.
The D.O.H. attorney indicated that while Mount Sinai had agreed to provide Bellevue Hospital with $20 million to expand its E.R., D.O.H. would not necessarily be monitoring compliance with that agreement.
Attorney Schwartz asserted that Bellevue is currently diverting emergency room patients to Beth Israel and that the emergency rooms at Bellevue and New York University-Langone Hospital are so crowded that those already admitted are standing “three to four deep. It looks like cattle,” he said.
The lawsuit has run parallel to a campaign by a broad group of community advocates and politicians, the Campaign to Save Beth Israel and New York Eye & Ear. In another recent development, the campaign released a report on Aug. 7, “The Beth Israel Story — It’s All About the Real Estate.” Analyzing the value of the properties that Mount Sinai could sell if the closure of these two campuses were approved, the report asserts that recent revisions to state law, plus proposed “City of Yes” zoning changes — all permitting greater density in residential developments — could “increase the value of Beth Israel properties to as much as $1 billion.”
Although community advocates have protested that Mount Sinai has been systematically eliminating staff and services from NYEE, the hospital behemoth has not submitted an NYEE closure plan to D.O.H. as of this time.
In October 2022 when I woke up and could not breathe, my partner rushed me from St. Marks Place to Beth Israel in a cab. I was admitted and received excellent life-saving care. Travel time: less than 10 minutes. At the October 8 hearing before Judge Moyne, when the legal team (present: Arthur Schwartz, David Siffert) representing me and my neighbors stated that the New York State Constitution guarantees residents healthcare, the forces — Mount Sinai and the NYS Dept. of Health — pushing for closure of Beth Israel commented that the state constitution does not guarantee a community a hospital it “likes.” How insulting! Far from the world of Facebook “likes,” we need a full-service hospital to serve the 400,000 residents of Lower Manhattan. It’s time our elected officials demand that the IRS review Mount Sinai’s nonprofit status.
Mount Sinai’s inept “leadership” should be penalized, not rewarded by governmental decision-making that destroys the New York Eye and Ear infirmary, a unique 200-year-old specialty institution that has provided first-class care to Lower Manhattan and the world. Greed and poor oversight have already decimated the nation’s oldest and arguably one of the most successful eye, ear, nose and throat care and teaching programs in the world. “Congratulations,” NY, on a job terribly done.
Clyde R Locke MD
Just to be clear – does this mean the Eye & Ear clinic will be closed? It’s practically a landmark or should be. I need to go there before it closes. I put it off because the last time I was there — suddenly they weren’t taking Medicare through AARP. I was told this has been restored. If anyone has any up-to-date info on the walk-in clinic, I’d appreciate it. Thanks!
Yeah! Go to it, Attorney Arthur Schwartz! And thank you!
DOH and Mt. Sinai leadership are complicit in a life-threatening fraud against the community; one that will have dire healthcare consequences.
Mt. Sinai’s mouth-watering obsession with monetizing the real estate is not for better healthcare in their hospital system but rather increased profits to further fund already-bloated administrative and leadership compensation. Borderline criminal; at a minimum unconscionable. Shame on them.
DOH abdicated its oversight mandate to the whims of Mt. Sinai and has violated its oversight responsibilities in favor of the Mt. Sinai lobbyists over the demonstrated healthcare needs of the community.
Go for it, Arthur, as only you can. Thank you for all you do.