Pol: Queens Strapped For Hospital Beds

A state task force has issued a report to the governor on the number of hospital beds available around the state, and someone who knows Queens very well is worried about what it might say regarding her home county.
Former Borough President Claire Shulman told The Queens Courier this week that the Governor’s Task Force on Health Care Reform, headed by Stephen Berger, counted beds by the city, not county, which may leave Queens underrepresented in the count.
“The committee is estimating the number of hospital beds throughout the state and there’s the possibility they will recommend closing some hospitals in order to cut the cost of health care,” Shulman said.
Berger could not be reached for comment for this story.
New York City is counted as one region in the study, Shulman explained, which means that the task force counts all the beds in the city rather than by the borough.
Using this math, out of approximately 30,000 beds available in city hospitals, Manhattan has approximately 14,000, while Queens hovers between six and seven thousand. In addition, the state health department credits Queens with 800 beds at Long Island Jewish, despite the fact it is over the border in Nassau.
All this despite the fact that Queens’ 2.25 million residents bests Manhattan’s 1.6 million, according to the most recent census figures.
“We are underbedded and always have been,” Shulman said, “People upstate who have something to say about this don’t understand the transportation problems we have here in the city, in my opinion. They don’t know what it means to have to cross the Queensborough Bridge in traffic to get to a Manhattan hospital.”
The panel gave its final report to Governor Pataki in November 2004, and while he has made no definitive statement on what he will do with the recommendations, recent rhetoric suggests that hospital closures are certainly on a short list of remedies to a long-ailing system.
In fact, in Pataki’s most recent executive budget announcement, he talks of “right-sizing” the health care system, in addition to “making smart new investments in our health care facilities, “providing seniors with more affordable and attractive long-term care options; and “reducing the growth in Medicaid spending.”
But some health care officials angrily denounced these suggested cost-savers.
“Reform does not include imposing Medicaid cuts and new taxes on financially- strapped health care providers,” said the Greater New York Hospital Association and 1199/SEIU in a joint response to the governor’s proposals.
At the New Parkway Hospital in Forest Hills, bed count numbers are a mixed bag. Currently, said spokesperson Gerald McKelvey, the hospital is running at about two-thirds full, with 168 beds out of 220 taken.
“There’s a seasonal flow to it, and from what I understand, it usually takes a dip in spring,” McKelvey said. “We went up dramatically when Dr. [Robert J.] Aquino took over in July and at one or two points it’s actually maxed out.”
Hospitals like Parkway are trying to specialize now and offer unique services that patients can only get at their facilities. McKelvey pointed to the special wound care treatment available at Parkway and said becoming a “boutique hospital” as they are being called, is important to some of the smaller hospitals being mentioned as closure candidates.
“Our main focus at the moment is to try to get the hospital financially stable, which shows some promise, but certainly niche offerings are very important to us.”
editrich@queenscourier.com