The New York State Department of Health has approved Mount Sinai Health System’s request to permanently shut down Beth Israel Hospital. However, multiple surviving lawsuits are preventing the setting of a definite closure date as suspicions around Mount Sinai’s official story intensify.
Mount Sinai Health System, which operates eight hospitals across New York City, acquired Beth Israel, located on East 16th Street and First Avenue, as part of its merger with Continuum Health Partners in 2013. Prior to the acquisition, Beth Israel was profitable, producing about $30 million in net income yearly for the last two years of independent management according to financial records. The hospital was considered a safety net for many, serving low-income and uninsured patients. But when it merged, the 799-bed center took a loss of $20 million and, since 2014, began a financial freefall, losing around $100 million yearly, according to public tax filings. Mount Sinai formally asked the Department of Health for permission to shut down the hospital last September, citing “insurmountable financial losses.”
In 2016, Mount Sinai announced its intention to downsize Beth Israel. Under its management, the hospital’s operating income fell from $1.3 billion in 2013 to $875 million in 2022 – the last year for which there is available data. By the time the State Health Department approved Beth Israel’s closure this summer, Mount Sinai had already transferred its cardiac surgery, maternity, neonatal care, pediatrics, chemical dependency, and rehabilitation departments to other hospitals in its network, and had decommissioned over 300 beds, representing 40% of the hospital’s capacity.
Dustin Jones is a longtime Beth Israel patient who’s been in care since 2015. This May, he transferred his treatment to NYU Langone Brooklyn due to the uncertainty around BI’s possible closure. “It’s pretty much a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he said.
Jeannine Kiely spent eight years as the director of Citibank’s Healthcare Group. While chairing Manhattan Community Board 2, she analyzed the entirety of Beth Israel’s financial records from the past 20 years.
“I definitely think it’s poor management,” said Kiely, who noted that other hospitals downtown are gaining patients, while Beth Israel has been “losing market share in a growing market.” Kiely added that the financial downfall could have been prevented with different management decisions.
In February, a coalition of organizations sued Mount Sinai Health System claiming that its planned closure of Beth Israel violated public health law.
“They took it over with a promise to the Department of Health that they were going to renovate it and make a state-of-the-art healthcare network. And instead, the minute they walked in the door, they began dismantling,” said Mike Schweinsburg, president of the 504 Democratic Club, one of the organizations involved in the lawsuit.
In a letter to the Department of Health dated October 2023, Elizabeth Sellman, President and CEO of Beth Israel, wrote Mount Sinai had done “everything in its power to support, enhance, and transform MSBI into a modern and thriving hospital.”
“They didn’t change a light bulb,” said Schweinsburg, “They had one intent in mind, and that’s to gut the hospital and sell the land beneath.”
A physician in Mount Sinai’s network, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to a clause in his contract forbidding unauthorized communication with the press, said that voices are circulating among “a lot of higher-ups” that “the plan all along was never to really do anything with BI, just to sell it, because it is prime real estate.”
Mount Siani intends to use the proceeds “ to pay off some of the purchase of all the other hospitals that they [acquired],” he added.
In its formal closure request to the State Health Department, the hospital network cited a “decreasing inpatient census” as one of the reasons for its necessity to shut down Beth Israel.
“They definitely had enough patients,” said the Mount Sinai physician, “I don’t know where that’s coming from, because, like I said, [the transfers] loaded all the other hospitals.” The doctor explained that he’s working longer hours to manage the influx of former Beth Israel patients, and he’s not the only staff member affected: “Quite a few very experienced senior nurses just left because they didn’t think there was enough support.”
On August 13, a New York State judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by the Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel after the Health Department’s conditional approval of the closure. The case was promptly re-filed, and the next hearing has been scheduled for October 31.
“What is going to be left if they succeed is a healthcare desert down here. 400,000 people will be without healthcare so they can make money on real estate,” said Schweinsburg.
A representative from the state health department declined to comment “on matters that are subject to pending litigation.”
Mount Sinai Health System did not comment despite initial agreement.
