Clips
HEALTH CARE IN FLUSHING; Fight to keep hospital alive; St. Joseph's Hospital staffers say the plan to shut and sell ignores the need for a local facility with expertise
BY LORETTA CHAO. STAFF WRITER
July 27, 2004 Tuesday
CITY EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A40
Scores of community members and supporters of St. Joseph's Hospital in Flushing have turned out to rally and petition against the controversial closure of their small community facility.
Since Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers announced the closure in April because of financial distress to the hospital system, outraged hospital staff and community supporters have blitzed local and state officials with a letter-writing campaign, rallied three times around the hospital, and collected about 4,000 signatures in a petition to keep St. Joseph's open.
"This is something that should not happen in a community, that a hospital ... be in a financial situation that makes them close the doors of facilities in their program," said Ken Cohen, community advisory board president and president of the NAACP of Northeast Queens, who has been active in supporting the hospital.
Known as one of New York's most comprehensive health care systems, Saint Vincent first offered to sell the hospital to other local medical groups in October. With no offers six months later, however, Saint Vincent drew up a closure plan and submitted it to the state Department of Health. If the plan is approved, the hospital real estate can be sold as a non-medical property to the highest bidder.
Supporters such as Dr. Ralph Almela, a surgeon at St. Joseph's, said Saint Vincent's effort to sell to a medical group was only half-hearted. "We don't mind them trying to sell the hospital, [but] they have to make a good-faith effort" to find a buyer who will keep the facility open, he said.
As passionate and vocal as hospital staff and community members were, however, Saint Vincent executive director Patrick Wardell said a 2002 state survey showed that only seven of every 100 residents in the community use St. Joseph's.
The hospital "has been limping along for a while, but it's operating loss is not the motivation behind closing it," Wardell said. "It's that we don't have the $40 million we feel we need to invest [in the hospital]. That, coupled with the fact that the community has not really used this hospital in a long time."
Wardell said that in its current condition, with one bathroom for every three patient rooms, the hospital is outdated compared to other city hospitals. The Saint Vincent board estimated it would need $40 million to make the hospital competitive.
Wardell said several non-medical buyers have expressed interest in the property and he expects a real estate appraisal in the next several weeks.
Meanwhile, doctors feel that the imminent closing is a result of years of neglect and, despite the hospital's profits in previous years, the Saint Vincent administration allowed St. Joseph's' infrastructure to deteriorate. "They are obligated to maintain the upkeep of the hospital. That's part of their presidiary responsibility," Almela said.
Saint Vincent "took the money out of the institution and pumped it into St. Vincent's and into other projects, never putting money back into the hospital. We're being the sacrificial lamb here because of the fact that they mismanaged their hospitals."
Saint Vincent has eight hospitals, including three in Queens, and serves nearly 600,000 people annually. Supporters said St. Joseph's is the only center of its size offering the most efficient and personal care in the area.
Eileen Miller, a nurse at St. Joseph's, said, "This is a special hospital, a family hospital, and the workers are very dedicated to taking care of the sick patients. I don't believe you'll find another hospital like this anywhere in the country."
Cohen, who lives blocks away from the hospital, said his mother was a patient there until she died this year. Her outpatient visits to St. Joseph's were only two and a half hours compared to the 10 hours she often spent traveling and getting treatment at other hospitals, he said.
St. Joseph's has served the community for 41 years and today houses the only wound-care clinic in Queens with hyperbaric chambers that provide oxygen therapy to patients with poisoning, infections, and diabetes.
Dr. Patricia Thomas of St. Joseph's said that the hospital "is between the two airports on Union Turnpike. Any catastrophic happenings [and] we're going to need all the best we have here in Queens."
While Wardell said there is no reason to believe the Health Department will reject the closure plan, staffers are outraged the process has begun prematurely.
"They're spreading word to the patients that the place is closing, not to come here anymore ... They've taken some of the equipment and things from storage," Thomas said. "Stripping us long before the application is complete we see as an injustice."
Robert Delgado, an environmental aide and the union delegate for Local 1199, said the rumors of financial crisis and possible closing have left many colleagues worried about their futures. "If you stand by the time clock and you look at the time cards, it's like every other day a section of a shelf empties out," he said. People are " worried about their homes, their families, cars, bills ... everything that comes with losing this job."
Wardell said Saint Vincent is doing its best to work with unions in relocating the staff, but Delgado said that despite having to support his 12-year-old son, he plans to stick around until the very end.
"There are some good people here who are willing to go down with the ship, and I'm one of them," he said.