A Manhattan judge has removed one of the last legal obstacles to the closure of Beth Israel Hospital at Mount Sinai, a 130-year-old medical center that serves much of Lower Manhattan.
Judge Nicholas Moyne on Monday dismissed a lawsuit that had blocked the hospital’s closure, even though the state Department of Health conditionally approved the closure last month. But the legal battle is not over and the hospital’s final day of closure has not yet been announced.
The coalition of citizens that filed the lawsuit to save the hospital responded to the judge’s decision by immediately filing a new complaint with the court challenging the state Department of Health’s approval of the closure plan.
“The closure date for 16th Street has not yet been finalized,” wrote Dr. Brendan Carr, president and CEO of Mount Sinai Health System, in a letter Tuesday morning informing employees of the flood of legal activity.
Mount Sinai has said the closure is necessary because Beth Israel is losing money. But critics of the plan argue that the city has already lost too many hospital beds to closures and consolidations in recent years. They say hospital officials and state regulators have a responsibility to preserve New Yorkers’ access to health care.
The original lawsuit, filed by the citizens’ coalition in February, argued that Beth Israel was violating state law by moving forward with its closure plan without state approval, which had not been granted at the time. Moyne initially granted the group’s request for a temporary restraining order preventing Beth Israel from continuing to cut services or transfer staff out of the hospital, and even ordered the hospital to restore the cut services to the extent possible.
In his decision to dismiss the lawsuit this week, Moyne noted that it did not challenge the health department’s approval of the closure, but he said his decision was made “without prejudice” and allows the plaintiffs to file a new lawsuit challenging the health department’s decision.
In the new complaint, community members argue that the health department’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious and demonstrates a continued lack of concern for the health care of Lower Manhattan residents.” They also claim that Mount Sinai’s closure plan is just a real estate ploy, given the value of the land associated with the hospital in Downtown Manhattan.
Patients and staff at Beth Israel have been in limbo since Mount Sinai authorities first announced their plans to close the hospital last fall. The hospital has already missed its originally scheduled closure date in mid-July.
Visits to the hospital’s emergency department have declined overall since the closure plans were announced, but the medical center has seen an influx of patients recently. In June, the most recent month for which state data is available, the hospital’s emergency department saw nearly 1,600 patient visits, up from just 300 visits the previous month. It’s unclear whether that patient volume has been sustained.
