On May 22nd the Long Island College Hospital (LICH) finally closed its doors after many years of financial troubles. It had difficulties when run by the Continuum Health System and also after it was taken over by the State University of New York. When it was about to close last year, community opposition, including by then candidate Bill DiBlasio, and a court order, kept it open. An ad hoc community group tried to take it over but was not successful because of lack of solid funding. Other organizations could not do any better and so the final outcome will probably be, at best, a large stand-alone, out-patient facility without a full service hospital, and a lot of high-end real estate development. Sound familiar?
The replacement of St. Vincent’s Hospital, and now LICH, with a large out-patient facility surrounded by high-end condos, is due to the market based funding system for our hospitals. The need for a different system has been discussed in detail (see What is to be Done to Save Our Hospitals?, WestView News October 2013 ) but there doesn’t seem to be any activity in that direction. Unless the cause of these closings is addressed, and not just the results, more shut downs will occur… and more, and more.
