By Ivan Pereira
After St. John’s and Mary Immaculate hospitals closed down Monday, Borough President Helen Marshall said she would be keeping a close watch on the state of Queens’ other medical centers as they face a large influx of patients from the shuttered medical centers.
Marshall plans to hold a meeting of her hospital task force at her office March 19 to review and plan for the dislocations caused by the closures. Several medical centers, including Jamaica Hospital and Elmhurst Hospital, have reported an increase in patients in their emergency rooms over the last couple of weeks and have been operating near capacity levels.
“We will continue the fight to make sure that quality health care is provided to these Queens communities,” the borough president said.
Caritas, the parent company of St. John’s and Mary Immaculate, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month because it had nearly $100 million in debt, according to court papers. The state could not provide the hospitals with a needed $36 million in funding for operations despite pleas to Gov. David Paterson from leaders like Marshall and hospital workers.
Three weeks ago the hospitals shut their emergency rooms and began transferring inpatients to other medical centers. On Sunday morning, most of the staff at Mary Immaculate, at 152−11 89th Ave. in Jamaica, and St. John’s Queens Hospital in Elmhurst, at 90−02 Queens Blvd., finished their final shifts and administrators officially closed the medical centers Monday morning.
The borough president said she has great concern for Jamaica and Elmhurst residents who need medical help. She recently visited the emergency rooms of Jamaica Hospital and Elmhurst Hospital, which along with other Queens hospitals reported large increases in emergency room patients over the last few weeks.
Marshall, who receives daily reports on the capacity of the borough’s hospitals, found that the emergency rooms at Jamaica and Elmhurst hospitals had been very busy and staff members had been operating at “a fast pace,” according to her spokesman, Dan Andrews.
The state is planning to give $18 million in grant to the remaining hospitals in the borough. New York Hospital of Queens is in the process of adding 80 additional beds, while North Shore Long Island Jewish Hospital is preparing to create space to accommodate an additional 12,800 patients, according to spokesmen at both medical centers.
The pressure on the emergency rooms along with the impact from patients who used Mary Immaculate and St. John’s for non−emergency needs are going to be the main topics at the task force meeting, Andrews said.
The borough president’s office has been in talks with the other Queens hospitals to see if they can hire some of the displaced workers to help meet the influx of patients, according Andrews.
“If they need more staff, then it might make sense to get the personnel at the two closed hospitals,” he said.
Regular patients at both St. John’s and Mary Immaculate have said they have had to deal with a lot of stress in finding a closer medical center. Mary Immaculate patient Lynette Pereira, 69, of Cambria Heights who had knee replacement surgery, said the hospital’s closing would make it difficult for her to get her medical check ups.
“Where I live, I could take a bus and come often,” said Pereira (no relation to this reporter), who uses a cane to walk, about Mary Immaculate.
Marshall said the meeting would try to find solutions to help the nearly 2,500 hospital workers who lost their jobs. Dozens rallied at a candlelight vigil outside St. John’s following their final shift midnight Sunday.
EMT Vanessa Alvearo, 31, who had not found a new job, said she would miss the camaraderie she had with her co−workers.
“I’m very distraught. I’ve been here for eight years. The people are like my family,”
Howard Koplowitz and Stephen Stirling contributed to this article.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e−mail at ipereira@timesledger.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 146.
