Queens Hospitals taken into bankruptcy

Kim Zambrotta, a Registered Nurse with 25 years at St. John’s Queens Hospital, is a single mom with “a big mortgage.”
Now, she faces the prospect of losing her job because the facility, as well as Mary Immaculate Hospital, is set to close.
“Everyone is dependent on me,” she said.
Saying it had “no recourse,” Caritas, which operates the two institutions, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court on Friday, February 6.
The Board of Trustees also voted on Thursday, February 5 to file a closure plan with the state’s Department of Health (DOH) for the two health care facilities.
In a statement released early Friday afternoon, Caritas said that despite the “measure of guarded optimism” based on “the publicly-expressed determination of our elected officials, no adequate source of funding has been identified and no long-term plan for the continued operation of the hospitals, several ambulatory care facilities and the Monsignor Fitzpatrick Skilled Nursing Pavilion, has been forthcoming.”
Zambrotta said that she, as well as other employees, received letters at home telling them that an approximate effective date for closure is February 28.
“We have given large sums to help Caritas,” said Claudia Hutton, spokesperson for the DOH. “[They] have not been able to make a business plan that allows them to operate in the black. The state does not have enough money to continue ‘stop-gap’ financing.”
But the employees are not going down without a fight, Zambrotta said.
They rallied in Albany on Wednesday, February 11 and met with the governor’s Deputy Secretary for Health.
Politicians, including Borough President Helen Marshall and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, had been trying to save the hospitals.
“I have been asked by Governor [David] Paterson’s office to head a task force that will craft a health care delivery system to replace Mary Immaculate Hospital in downtown Jamaica,” Marshall said on Tuesday, February 10.
She said her first priority would be to keep the hospitals open, but that goal is hard to achieve.
“As of Saturday [February 14], elective admissions will cease and ambulance diversions will soon follow,” Marshall said.
Other hospitals including Jamaica, Queens Hospital Center and New York Hospital Queens will have to absorb the extra patients and they are already at or above capacity, she noted.
“If this sounds like the beginning of a horror movie, order some more popcorn,” Marshall said.
In the coming weeks, read the statement, “Caritas and its dedicated staff of medical professionals will make every possible effort to ensure that patients are properly cared for as our health system begins the complex process of winding down its programs and operations.”
“Accommodations will be made at nearby hospitals and health centers for the additional patient load. Even during the difficult closing period, patient care will remain the highest priority for Caritas and the 2,500 loyal members of the hospitals’ staff,” they assured.
“How will surrounding hospitals cope with the increase in patient care?” asked Marshall. “I want to see the closure plan. I want to see how capacity will be built at other hospitals. I want to see that every resident of Queens continues to get the health care that they are entitled to receive.”
Hutton told The Courier that the DOH is “making sure the capacity for patients in Queens stays nice and strong. We began conversations with other providers in Queens about absorbing patients. We must make sure people can get access to the health care they need as the arbiters of public health.”
-With additional reporting by Pete Davis