Parkway vows merger with Mount Sinai

Announcing a merger in the works with Mount Sinai Hospital, officials and employees of Parkway Hospital rallied outside of the Forest Hills facility, condemning the decision issued on Tuesday, November 28 by the Berger report to close the private hospital.
&#8220This hospital will not close,” Dr. Robert Aquino, CEO and chairman of the board for The New Parkway Hospital, said during the rally with elected officials. &#8220We will merge with Mount Sinai.”
When Aquino bought the ailing hospital two years ago, Parkway was already $12 million in debt, and in July 2005, the hospital filed for bankruptcy under the weight of millions.
Hospital officials said that they have since raised the occupancy of the hospital by 60 percent and the amount of ER patients to 15,000 treated annually. In addition, they pointed to the fact that Parkway is a private hospital with the lowest cost per day for admission as two reasons to keep the hospital open.
&#8220By closing a hospital like this, you are not saving a dollar,” said Arlene Pedone, a member of Parkway's board.
&#8220This is like treating a head cold with decapitation,” said Congressmember Anthony Weiner, calling on State legislators to act before the January 1, 2007 deadline to save Parkway and four other City hospitals on the chopping block. &#8220We are here to say that we are not going to take this lying down.”
Weiner said that he did not know if a merger with Mount Sinai would allow the 210-bed Parkway facility to be removed from the list of hospitals slated for closure.
Currently, his office is collecting signatures from seniors, pledging to ask to be taken to Parkway when in need of medical care.
Eighty-two-year-old Estelle Chwat, who served as Parkway's first personnel and public relations director in 1963 and is the co-founder of the Forest Hills Action League, pointed to the high rise buildings surrounding the hospital on 113th Street.
&#8220When we opened the hospital in 1963, this area was a home,” she said. &#8220Today we have a major city …God forbid something major [emergency] should happen.”