Brooklyn Hospital Agrees To State Brokered Merger
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A struggling Brooklyn hospital is getting a new lease on life thanks to a state-brokered merger that will allow it to maintain services that were in danger of being dropped. NY1's Kafi Drexel filed the following report.Long Island College Hospital was in deep financial trouble. So much trouble that there was talk it would have to shut down some services, including maternity and pediatric care to help trim the hospital's debt. But now it appears that will not happen. A deal has been reached for the hospital's current owner -- Continuum Health Partners -- to give up control and for SUNY Downstate Medical Center to take charge and keep services intact.
"In terms of services that offered to the community we have every intention of expanding them and certainly the basic kinds of services including obstetrics and pediatrics we will not be closing," said SUNY Downstate Medical Center President Dr. John LaRosa.
It's the first time a private hospital will be run by a state institution. New York State is putting up $40 million in grant money to help the transition happen and cover part of LICH's $170 million debt.
Governor David Paterson said the merger is a success story -- a hospital being saved, not closed when so many others in recent years, like St. Vincent's in Manhattan, have failed. Putting the deal together is proving to be less challenging than with other hospitals because most of LICH's debt involves paying off its mortgage.
"It's unprecedented, but it demonstrates on the part of the Department of Health and also on the part of Downstate Medical Center a great deal of creative thinking in a crisis," Paterson said.
Under the merger, LICH will keep its name. SUNY Downstate still plans to run LICH's school-based clinic programs, previously in jeopardy, as long as state funding permits.
Some doctors who have long-pushed to operate as an independent are not 100 percent happy with the deal. LICH was a stand alone hospital up until just over a decade ago, when Continuum took over.
Doctors and medical staff showing up to the announcement seemed supportive of the plan. But hospital management with both SUNY Downstate and LICH barred any of them from speaking to the media.
The SUNY Downstate/LICH merger still needs to secure state regulatory approvals before a deal is finalized.
Hospital brass say the takeover should be official by sometime next spring.