Judge Rejects Long Island College Hospital’s Ownership Deal By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS Published: August 20, 2013 In a surprise ruling cheered by nurses, doctors and others who have fought to keep a Brooklyn hospital open, but which may have muddled its fate even further, a judge on Tuesday ordered the hospital to be returned to its previous owners, nullifying a 2011 transfer to the State University of New York. In the eight-page decision, the judge, Carolyn E. Demarest of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, castigated SUNY for trying to shut down Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill, which she said was transferred to the state university system with the understanding that it would continue to serve the community as a hospital. Its previous owner, Continuum Health Partners, which also runs Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals in Manhattan, threatened to close the hospital if SUNY did not take it over. Now, SUNY says the hospital’s financial problems are so dire that it is threatening the survival of SUNY’s other medical facilities in Brooklyn, including its Downstate Medical Center and medical school. After Justice Demarest’s ruling, Continuum said it had no interest in taking back the hospital, also known as LICH. “Upon due consideration, Continuum respectfully concludes that we cannot reassume management of LICH and is unable to take responsibility for the hospital’s operations,” Stanley Brezenoff, the president and chief executive, said in a statement. The judge wrote that it was unclear whether SUNY’s intention was always to act as a kind of Trojan horse, taking over the hospital as a way of seizing its valuable assets — it is in a brownstone neighborhood in Brooklyn, and some rooms have views of the Statue of Liberty — or whether the closing happened through incompetence or circumstances beyond its control. Despite its prized location, the hospital has a largely poor patient base and has had years of Medicaid cuts. Either way, the judge described the closing as a violation of the trust placed in SUNY. “At the very least, there appears to have been a lack of due diligence,” Justice Demarest said. “The wave of enthusiasm for a solution that would preserve LICH may have blinded many to a more sinister purpose to seize its assets and dismantle the hospital.” In a parallel case, another Brooklyn judge has ordered SUNY to keep the hospital open while it negotiates its future with the employee unions that have been opposing the shutdown in court. The closing has also become an issue in the race for mayor, with Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, a Democratic candidate, frequently appearing at rallies demanding that the university keep the hospital open. “We don’t want that hospital turned into luxury condominiums,” Jill Furillo, a registered nurse and executive director of the New York State Nurses Association, said on Tuesday. In response to the judge’s order on Tuesday, the university denied any ulterior motives. “The facts are that when SUNY acquired Long Island College Hospital it was done with the best of intentions: save a hospital that was on the verge of closure, grow the struggling Downstate enterprise as a strategy to survive, and provide additional clinical training opportunities for our students,” university officials said in a statement. “SUNY has poured millions of dollars into LICH in an attempt to reverse nearly two decades of financial losses. Unfortunately, SUNY and LICH became victims of the daunting realities of Brooklyn’s health care delivery landscape. We are disappointed it did not work, but it was not for lack of effort.” Recognizing that Continuum, which recently agreed to merge with Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, might not be eager to resume running the hospital, the judge said if Continuum refused that a caretaker or a receiver could be appointed. It is unclear who that might be — a caretaker would presumably want some guarantee of state support to keep the hospital running, and the administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has not expressed interest in continuing to prop up failing hospitals. State health officials did not respond on Tuesday to a request for comment.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 04:36:03 +0000
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