Beth Israel Forced to Postpone Its Mid-July Shutdown Plan

Mt. Sinai told employees that they will not close E. 16th’s Beth Israel hospital on July 12, as they had hoped to, after acknowledging that they do not have state approval to do so.

In an internal memo issued on July 10, Mt. Sinai CEO Dr. Brendan Carr and Beth Israel President Elisabeth Sellman wrote: “We will, of course, not commence the closure process without approval by the state and until the legal hurdles are cleared, but there is urgency as there are risks associated with keeping the hospital open beyond the proposed date.”

Mt. Sinai has repeatedly said that Beth Israel has lost $1 billion dollars in the past decade, or roughly $100 million a year. They claim that this necessitates its closure, although community advocates note that the hospital is not uniquely unprofitable compared to the rest of Mt. Sinai’s Manhattan portfolio.

If Beth Israel shutters completely, 400,000 Manhattan residents would only have one outpost of a major hospital–a branch of NewYork Presbyterian–below 23rd Street. Health advocates point out that this would cause major strain on other hospitals in the area, such as Bellevue, and have slammed Mt. Sinai for reportedly diverting ambulances from Beth Israel before its closure is approved.

The legal matters that the executives mentioned appears to be a reference to a temporary restraining order issued against Mt. Sinai in February, after a community coalition filed a lawsuit alleging that Beth Israel’s closure plan violated environmental and health laws–especially given that Mt. Sinai was shuttering Beth Israel’s beds and services without NYS Department of Health approval.

Mt. Sinai was also hit with a cease-and-desist order by the DOH, for similar reasons, last December. The state agency then soundly condemned Mt. Sinai’s closure plan in April, noted that their cease-and-desist order had been violated, and demanded a host of corrections. They are currently reviewing a revised closure plan that Mt. Sinai has submitted.

The community coalition reportedly updated the suit that earned Mt. Sinai a restraining order last month, according to Gothamist, and now want a judge to force the DOH to reject Beth Israel’s new closure plans. In court filings, both the DOH and Mt. Sinai have argued against this; in fact, the DOH has said that such a ruling would “upend the regulatory structure” that the agency maintains.

Much of Manhattan’s political establishment, which has been heavily involved in the fight to keep Beth Israel open, issued a statement after Mt. Israel postponed the closure. Signees included: U.S. Representatives Jerry Nadler and Dan Goldman, Borough President Mark Levine, State Senators Kristen Gonzalez and Brad Hoylman-Sigal, State Assembly Members Harvey Epstein and Deborah Glick, and City Council Members Keith Powers, Carlina Rivera, and Christopher Marte.

“As we continue to engage with the Department of Health on its formal review of Mt. Sinai’s proposal to close Beth Israel, the announcement that the closure will not occur today, as proposed by Mt. Sinai, is a welcome reprieve from the uncertainty and anxiety that the community has experienced since the closure was first proposed, and is evidence of the community’s collective call for transparency and accountability,” they wrote.