Crisis Alert: Six Hospitals in NYC in Jeopardy

DoGoodThenGo · Sep 6, 2011

Like I said when Saint Vinny's closed, most hospitals in NYC are into it up to their necks and those serving mainly the poor and or under insured are the worst of them all.

New York City is or rather become a tale of two places, the very wealthy or at least comfortable and the rest of us. The former have access to the best care and services for which systems such as NYP, Mount Sinai and others are rolling out the red carpets, as for the latter they pretty much have to take what is on offer and be glad of it.

Furhter complicating matters is that those with funds or good to excellent insurance often would rather die than go to a "safety net" or charity hospital. As the article in the OP points out despite having abundant choices in Brooklyn many with the option choose to go into Manhattan for care. This applies to elective surgery to L&D and much in between. On the one hand the flight of upper middle and above classes into newly or established gentrified areas of Brooklyn,Queens or even the Bronx have brought those areas some benefits the new residents still prefer the healthcare systems they or their friends/family know in Manhattan.

Also as one stated during the debate around the closure of Saint Vinny's NYS and NYS have known for years now there are too many beds in some areas often duplicating services and not enough in others. With both federal, state and local budgets under pressure there isn't going to be any mass infusion of cash as of old. IMHO expect to see more of what happened with St. V's; closing of some hospitals to be replaced with ABCS to serve the area's population.

Finally anyone even thinking of attending nursing school needs to take all this in with a clear head. Fewer acute care hospitals will mean less RN openings in those settings. While there probably will be an increase in community health, ABCS and others settings how that plays out may take years to settle.