Ministers To Meet On Hospital’s Struggles
Amid reports of the financial turmoil at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, members of clergy in Ridgewood and Bushwick are banding together to find a way to prevent the hospital from closing or being consolidated with other facilities.
Msgr. James Kelly, pastor of St. Brigid Church on the Ridgewood/ Bushwick border in Brooklyn, told the Times Newsweekly that a group of priests in the area are looking to arrange a meeting with Wyckoff Hospital officials regarding the future of the medical center.
“We do not want the hospital close,” Kelly said, pointing out that the facility not only serves thousands of residents in both communities but also employs over 1,800 individuals. “We’re interested in remaking the hospital as a functioning entity, not just as an adjutant” to another facility.
“It would be an abomination” if the hospital were to shut down, he added.
Wyckoff Heights was the subject of an investigative report published by The New York Times on Mar. 25 which claimed that while the hospital defauted on $109 million in statesecured bonds, its former chief executive officer, Rajiv Garg, spent thousands on luxuries that were ultimately billed to the hospital, including insurance for his Bentley, dinners at fine restaurants in Manhattan and even a trip to London.
Garg was ousted by Wyckoff Heights’ board of directors in December, and Ramon J. Rodriguez- a member of the State Medicaid Redesign Team formed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo-was appointed as his replacement.
While serving on the team, Rodriguez was a member of its Brooklyn Work Group, which recommended in its November 2011 report that Wyckoff Heights merge with two other purportedly struggling hospitals in Brooklyn: Interfaith Medical Center and Brooklyn Hospital Center.
The work groups’ report declared that Wyckoff Heights required “immediate intervention to avert finan- cial collapse.” Data cited in the report indicated that the hospital carried $324,000 in long-term debt per bed in 2010; approximately 324 beds were at the hospital that year. Additionally, the hospital had $91 million in negative net assets and an additional $117 million in other liabilities.
The Mar. 25 New York Times report found that, in addition to Garg’s alleged spending, another “member of the hospital’s board obtained for the phramcy that he owned the exclusive right to market prescription drugs to hospital patients.” Another board member “lent $2.4 million to the ailing Wyckoff at 12 percent interest, with the hospital required to put up several of its buildings as security.”
More than 7,000 patients reportedly visit Wyckoff every month, many of whom are low-income and/or have no health insurance, according to the New York Times report.
