Long waits, overcrowding now expected following St. Vincent's Hospital closing

Quoted entirely from FierceHleathcare:

Long waits, overcrowding result from Queens hospital closings; a harbinger of St. Vincent's fallout?

May 25, 2010 — 11:08am ET | By Dan Bowman

Hospitals in Manhattan worried about the impact of closing hospitals like St. Vincent's need only look to neighboring borough Queens to see the effect hospital closures can have on a community. Three hospital closures in two years--Parkway Hospital (251 beds) in 2008 and the simultaneous closings of St. John's Hospital and Mary Immaculate Hospital (422 combined beds) in February 2009--have resulted in 17-hour wait times at one facility, and patients receiving emergency care in a hospital café at a second, reports The Wall Street Journal.

"If you want to think you're in a war-torn third-world country, just go to the ER at New York Hospital Queens on a Friday afternoon, Dr. Paul Aaronson, president of the Queens County Medical Society, told the Journal.

While Queens already was in bad shape before the closings--with the lowest ratio of beds to population of any of the five boroughs according to Greater New York Hospital Association president Kenneth Raske--the closings created a new level of misery for patients and caregivers alike. In 2008, the American Hospital Association reported that Queens hospitals had only 1.7 beds for every 1,000 patients, down 32.5 percent after the closings took place.

Emil Silberman, associate director of the Emergency Medicine Department at Jamaica Hospital, said that his facility, which was made to treat 60,000 patients annually, currently treats more than double that number--135,000 per year. As such, nurses like Larisa Kolyuyeva see as many as 28 patients in a 12-hour shift, more than double the average workload prior to the closings, the newspaper reports.

And such numbers aren't likely to improve, with emergency room visits expected to increase under reform, according to a survey from the American College of Emergency Physicians. Becker's Hospital Review lists ER closures as one of six reasons why overcrowding is likely to continue.

To learn more:
- check out this Wall Street Journal article
- here's the Becker's piece

The ''cynical and opportunistic'' New York City charter revision deal

Testimony by Michael D.D. White of Noticing New York delivered at the New York City Charter Revision Commission meeting on May 25, 2010

Michael D.D. White has posted the written remarks he delivered in testimony on May 25, 2010, at the New York City Charter Revision Commission’s hearing. Among his remarks, Mr. White also posted his own, independent commentary about the farce that has become what I've separately called the "charter revision barter commission:"

« John Keefe, a representative speaking on behalf of Assemblyman James Brennan’s office, went further: He said that because the commission had been convened to implement a pre-agreed-upon a 'cynical and opportunistic deal' between billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Ron Lauder (to repeal and then restore term limits after Bloomberg's election to a third term), that the commission should take no action at all as none could be considered legitimate. »

YouTube Hater Cyberstalker Harasser Hootchee aka MikeIsInnocent

The cyberstalker, who normally attacks Suzannah B. Troy and the commentators to her videos, has turned his attention on me.

MikeIsInnocent has sent you a message:

Sent : Wed 5/26/2010 9:40 PM

Greetings

I am aware of the fact that you have a certain opinion of me created in part by the misrepresentations of other people.

According to Wikipedia, :

Stalking is a continuous process, consisting of a series of actions, each of which may be entirely legal in itself. Lambèr Royakkers writes that:

"Stalking is a form of mental assault, in which the perpetrator repeatedly, unwantedly, and disruptively breaks into the life-world of the victim, with whom he has no relationship (or no longer has), with motives that are directly or indirectly traceable to the affective sphere. Moreover, the separated acts that make up the intrusion cannot by themselves cause the mental abuse, but do taken together (cumulative effect)."^[2]

Wikipedia adds :

When prosecuted, many stalkers have unsuccessfully attempted to justify their behavior based on their use of public forums, as opposed to direct contact. Once they get a reaction from the victim, they will typically attempt to track or follow the victim's internet activity. Classic cyberstalking behavior includes the tracing of the victim's IP address in an attempt to verify their home or place of employment. ^[7]

Teflon Mike

"Nothing's his fault," says Suzannah B. Troy.

Thousands of residents have been ordered to stop using their apartment balconies after the Department of Buildings has found that the balconies at 16 high rise buildings to be unsafe. The Department of Buildings, a New York City agency, has no credibility in the area of public safety, because it always seems to wait until after cranes collapse or balconies give way before it begins to act. And where is Mayor Michael Bloomberg in all of this ? In her latest YouTube video, Ms. Troy concludes that, "No one's holding him accountable." In fact, Ms. Troy has invented a new nickname for the mayor, "Teflon Mike."

Since its release, Ms. Troy's ''Teflon Mike'' video has been carried by at least the SoHo Journal and this blog.

The political scandal that is St. Vincent's bankruptcy

No unemployment benefits for nurses ? Really !?

Could a movement be beginning that will lead New Yorkers to start a petition or ballot initiative to recall the ill-fated, karmically-doomed third term of Mayor Michael Bloomberg ?

As has been said in first person accounts of their true experiences with the New York State Department of Labor, for example :

... nurses were unable to qualify to receive unemployment benefits, once their employment was terminated by St. Vincent's Hospital. There are questions about how long St. Vincent's had not been filing unemployment reports and paying unemployment taxes to the Department of Labor. Now, word of the unemployment benefits financial scandal has begun to spread to some blogs.

"We need a revolution Downtown," said Eileen Dunn, R.N., a former nurse at St. Vincent's Hospital.

Another activist said that throughout the entire process of the closing and bankruptcy of St. Vincents, which will leave about 3,500 without jobs, we have heard nothing but a "deadly silence" coming from Mayor Bloomberg. We need to "recall" Mayor Bloomberg, the activist concluded.

But the reality is that the mayor did know about the deteriorating financial health of the hospital.

According to an exposé on NY1, "Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city had been anticipating the closure of St. Vincent's Hospital, and that the New York City Fire Department [was] ready to take over the hospital's 13 ambulance tours as soon as it is needed."

What kind of a mayor hears the death rattle, but never summons an organised medical emergency response ? The very kind of a mayor, who we need to recall.

Starve the Beast : Mike Bloomberg's Scorched Earth Policy

Medical emergencies loom large following St. Vincent's shady bankruptcy

Residents of the Lower Westside of Manhattan have been left to wonder how they will receive emergency medical care, now that St. Vincent's Hospital has been closed. The reality is that Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been engaged in an active campaign to eliminate the numbers of such important first responders as firefighters and police officers. Now, there is a real and valid concern whether he is also targeting medical professionals, such as doctors and nurses.

As has been reported by NY1, at the time that the Board of Trustees voted to close the storied hospital, St. Vincent's Hospital, with 400 inpatient beds, had been employing 3,500 people and had been providing life-saving treatments in its emergency room to about 60,000 patients per year.

Recall Mayor Michael Bloomberg, says activist

Recall that Bloombo Dicto once supported a Westside Stadium, but he now cares naught for any Westside Hospital.

We need to recall Mayor Michael Bloomberg and elect in his place a mayor, who has his priorities "straight."

A concerned community resident spoke at the April 30, 2010 emergency community meeting in Hudson Guild, the day that St. Vincent's Hospital was closed. Maybe the reason St. Vincent's was allowed to close under shady conditions was precisely because it would allow developers to get their hands on the "million dollar views" from St. Vincent's location in the West Village ?

See also : How to recall a bad mayor.

Disaster Relief needed after St. Vincent's Hospital has closed

If we don't restore a hospital to Lower Manhattan, then we need to recall Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Why Are They Closing St. Vincent's Hospital? (Pt. 6) - Bankruptcy Court from g. sosa on Vimeo.

Challenge of Hospital Emergency Preparedness

Public Health and Terror emergencies in NYC

Julie Menin, chairwoman of Manhattan's Community Board 1, discusses the threat to terrorism preparedness caused to Lower Manhattan by the loss of St. Vincent's Hospital. Having a fully-operating, "community hospital" in Lower Manhattan is the only way that residents, who were lured by grants to move to Lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11, can be assured of receiving hospital emergency medical treatment.

The whole city was agitated and outraged after the Obama administration slashed $53 million from the city's terror-fighting budget -- a dozen days after a botched bomb plot to kill people in Times Square -- I want to know why isn't some of that that agitation and outrage directed to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Council, after St. Vincent's Hospital was closed under shady conditions on April 30, 2010?

We know that now that St. Vincent's Hospital has closed, we have lost a critical part of our terrorism preparedness. Why don't our elected officials see this ?

Mayor plans to cut more first responders. Next up : street artists.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who already has a record of decimating other first responders, such as laying off firefighters and closing firehouses, laying off police, doing nothing to save critical hospitals and emergency rooms (such as St. Vincent's Hospital), has now turned his attention to the latest heroes of New York : street artists.

The Huffington Post explains the impact of the mayor's proposed cuts to street artists, not in terms of the loss of arts and culture in New York City, but in terms of national security :

"Right now, the Bloomberg administration wants to reduce park art vendors by a whopping seventy-five percent. If the city follows through with its plan, only 18 vendors would be allowed in Union Square, for example, down from the 100 or so that set up shop now on busy weekends. While the proposed changes would result in more elbow room, the regulations would also mean eighty fewer pairs of eyes that can "say something" when they "see something" suspicious in a crowded park on a summer afternoon, an appealing soft target for people bent on inflicting the most mayhem with minimal effort. Think of your typical vendor as a living, breathing time-lapse camera, attuned to subtleties we don't stick around long enough to notice. Can we really afford to risk losing so many ?"

Humility is a Gift

(Thanks to Heather Letzkus, via Queens Crap on FaceBook. Photo links to the original blog post on New York Shitty, from whence it originally came.)

Census Hospital Propaganda

Bloomberg to St. Vincent's : "Drop dead" -- and that's exactly what happened.

No City Rescue

In making his reasoning for running for an unprecedented third term as mayor, Michael Bloomberg rationalised that it was his financial acumen and success that qualified him for running New York City during the financial crisis. Just like other notions that the mayor has maintained, it was implied or promised that he had the resources or expertise to help the city survive the Great Recession. But has he demonstrated such financial leadership when it came to saving St. Vincent's Hospital from bankruptcy and financial ruin ?

In a news article published on Bloomberg.com in late January 2010, the mayor said that he was not going to be of any help to solve the financial problems of St. Vincent's Hospital.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he intends to keep the city out of St. Vincent’s financial troubles. The city controls 11 full-service hospitals run through its Health and Hospitals Corp., “which we are going to have an enormous challenge to maintain,” and wouldn’t take on St. Vincent’s to keep it operating, he said.

On April 30, St. Vincent's Hospital closed its doors. So, really, what good is Mayor Bloomberg, if he has no financial answers to offer ?

Greed and Politics destroyed St. Vincent's Hospital

"It's like a funeral inside."

New York State Assemblymember Richard Gottfried criticised New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg last night, during a town hall meeting of Chelsea and Greenwich Village residents. The mayor, who likes to get involved in issues that are important to New York City, did not participate in trying to save St. Vincent's Hospital, the Hon. Gottfried said.

Separately, as was reported by the Associated Pressin an article published yesterday on The Kansas City Star's website, Mayor Bloomberg was unmoved by attempts to save St. Vincent's.

"It's very sad. I wish the hospital could stay open. But the bottom line is, it's not going to," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday on his weekly radio show.

The same AP report also included the following information :

Since it opened in 1849, the famed Manhattan hospital has treated cholera victims, survivors of the Titanic and hundreds of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. It also was at the forefront of the early response to the AIDS epidemic.

St. Vincent's was the last Catholic-affiliated hospital in New York City. The nearest top-level trauma center is now Bellevue Hospital, more than two miles away.

During a "last mass" inside the hospital's chapel, the former St. Vincent's employees became emotional, the AP added.

"There's a lot of heartbroken people inside the ER. ... They have been the heart and soul of this hospital for many years," said Eileen Dunn, a St. Vincent's nurse for 24 years. "I think on 9/11 we saw what hatred could do. We're seeing today what greed and politics can do to a hospital.

"It's like a funeral inside," she said.

Urgent care centers can't treat real medical emergencies

A less-comprehensive urgent care facility will be the only "medical lifeline" that will serve the Lower West Side of Manhattan.

Last week, before St. Vincent's Hospital was closed, Governor David Paterson announced that state grants (at least one reportedly worth $9.4 million) will fund a watered-down urgent care center in the area. Lenox Hill Hospital will operate the center at the former site of St. Vincent's Hospital, before it would move to a permanent site, The New York Daily News reported.

Yesterday's closing of St. Vincent's Hospital in the West Village, and the proposal to replace it with an urgent care center, creates a deadly public health threat for residents of the Lower West Side of Manhattan.

As was reported by WCBS News, "An urgent care center will be the only medical lifeline to serve the community. Although it will be open 24/7, it will only treat minor injuries...."

How you can decide if and when you need to go to the emergency room of a hospital : If you have a serious condition, like a stroke, heart attack, severe bleeding, head injury, or other major trauma. Don't take a chance with anything life-threatening. The ER is the best place for these and other critical conditions, including :
- chest pain
- difficulty breating
- severe bleeding or head trauma
- loss of consciousness
- sudden loss of vision or blurred vision
- heart attack
- stroke
- diabetic shock
- car accident
- severe fall
- life threatening allergic reactions

When an urgent care center might better meet your needs :
- minor burns or injuries
- sprains and strains
- coughs, colds, and sore throats
- ear infections
- non life-threatening allergic reactions
- fever, or other flu-like symptoms
- rash or other skin irritations
- mild cases of asthma
- animal bites

Suite Mayor of Charity probably in Bermuda as St. Vincent's flatlines

The uncharitable closing of St. Vincent's Hospital

Civil rights attorney Yetta Kurland and others gathered last night in Chelsea to lead a town hall meeting to discuss the public health emergency caused by the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital.

As has been reported by NY1, at the time that the Board of Trustees voted to close the storied hospital, St. Vincent's Hospital, with 400 inpatient beds, had been employing 3,500 people and had been providing life-saving treatments in its emergency room to about 60,000 patients per year.