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SUNY Downstate may close Brooklyn hospital. No one knows where its 150 daily patients will go.
By
Caroline Lewis
Published Feb 29, 2024
Modified Feb 29, 2024
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Xinhua/Michael Nagle via Getty Images
By
Caroline Lewis
Published Feb 29, 2024
Modified Feb 29, 2024
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Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing to get $400 million approved for a plan to “transform” SUNY Downstate’s University Hospital in Brooklyn. Hospital leaders plan to close their current facility in Flatbush, move all inpatient services to other hospitals in the borough and construct a new outpatient clinic.
Lawmakers will have to decide on that funding by April 1, when they vote on a state budget. But there’s still no plan in place for other hospitals to take on the roughly 150 patients SUNY Downstate sees daily, or the nearly 350 it could serve at maximum capacity. Space at nearby Kings County Hospital is already limited, according to city hospital officials, who say there’s “no possibility” of Kings taking on Downstate’s load right now.
“To me what has been the most egregious factor is the notion that problems that have built up over decades are now being expected to be rectified within a matter of weeks,” said state Sen. Zellnor Myrie. “It's disrespectful to the community. It’s disrespectful to those of us who have been sent here to represent the community.”
While SUNY Chancellor John King Jr. has described the closure as a “transformation,” some state lawmakers and advocates are skeptical about funneling money into a plan that could ultimately reduce the area's services.
King first announced the plan in January. He says the changes are needed because of a massive financial deficit, a declining patient census and a building in disrepair. But the plan's critics say SUNY must do more community outreach and provide concrete details on how its proposal will affect patient care.
SUNY Downstate launched an online survey and began meetings with local stakeholders this month, and plans to release its findings in mid-March.
Members of United University Professions, a union representing Downstate employees, will protest the changes alongside clergy and elected officials outside the Brooklyn hospital on Thursday.
Hochul detailed the funding request in amendments to her executive budget proposal earlier this month. She included $300 million in capital funding for a new outpatient facility, and another $100 million to cover the hospital’s operating expenses in the coming fiscal year while the plan is being implemented.
A spokesperson for Hochul on Thursday denied that the plan for Downstate amounts to a closure. “She has committed $400 million to bring high-quality health care to residents in a modernized facility while protecting health care jobs," said the spokesperson, Katy Zielinski, in a statement. "At her direction, SUNY will continue to listen to the voices of residents as it finalizes plans to invest in and revitalize Downstate - not close it."
Kings County ‘busier than it’s ever been’
King told Gothamist this week that he aims to relocate all inpatient services to other hospitals, but did not answer questions about whether they would be able to add the same number of beds SUNY Downstate is cutting.
“The bulk of those services would move directly across the street to Kings County [Hospital],” he said.
The chancellor added that Kings County, like SUNY Downstate, is “significantly under capacity.” But the head of NYC Health + Hospitals, the system that runs Kings County, has said the opposite is true.
“Kings County is already busy and there is no possibility that at this moment we could take a hundred more medical surgical patients,” Dr. Mitchell Katz, the president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, said at a public meeting earlier this month. “This is not physically possible.”
Katz said Kings County is “busier than it’s ever been.” The plan to close SUNY Downstate comes shortly after the recent closure of nearby Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, which is being replaced with outpatient services as part of a separate, state-supported “transformation plan” that merged three financially struggling hospitals in the area.
Katz added that he is looking into ways to make room for additional inpatient capacity and that he will be involved in talks around SUNY Downstate’s transformation plan, even though he’s not advocating for it.
King said some services could also be transferred to Maimonides Medical Center, although that hospital is farther away in Borough Park.
When asked about that possibility this week, Maimonides spokesperson Tina Lee said, "We greatly value our relationship with SUNY Downstate and look forward to continuing working together to best serve Brooklyn communities, but no specific plans have been developed to date."
Downstate’s medical school would remain open in the transformation plan.
How urgent is SUNY Downstate’s situation?
State Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest, a Democrat who represents parts of Brooklyn, said conversations about the plan should take place outside of the budget process.
“You can't put the cart before the horse,” she said. During a state legislature hearing earlier this month, several lawmakers questioned King on why they and the public didn’t receive more notice about the proposed changes.
But King said that it is crucial to secure funding during this budget cycle even if some of the details of the plan are still being worked out.
“If there is no intervention, we'll run out of cash to operate by the summer,” King said.
SUNY Downstate already receives a significant amount of state and federal subsidies to stay afloat, although such subsidies are not uncommon for hospitals that serve a large share of low-income patients. SUNY Downstate had a nearly $100 million operating deficit in 2022, the last full year for which financial information is available.
Downstate also received $25 million from the state’s fund for financially distressed hospitals that year, had $13 million in loans forgiven by the state, and also received other forms of relief, according to SUNY’s overview of its finances.
SUNY Downstate said the hospital’s current building is “near the end of its life” and that replacing it would cost an estimated $3 billion over eight to 10 years.
But critics still question why SUNY Downstate didn’t solicit more community feedback before announcing the contours of the plan. The meetings it’s recently started holding aren’t open to the general public. King said the sessions are designed to get detailed feedback in a “manageable” group size.
Despite the open questions, some lawmakers support the plan and the funding Hochul has allocated for it.
“The SUNY Downstate Hospital has been facing a compounding series of challenges for decades,” Assembly Majority Whip Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, a Democrat who represents parts of Flatbush, said in a statement. “Over the long term, it's become clear that the Hospital's situation can't be sustainably solved through continued, increased funding.”
If the proposed funding for the plan is approved, SUNY Downstate will still need to get regulatory approval from the state to build a new outpatient clinic and move or close hospital beds.
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Health and Science
Caroline Lewis
Caroline Lewis is on the health care beat for WNYC and Gothamist. She has covered COVID, a nurses' strike, the overdose crisis and New York’s marijuana legalization effort, and spent a year investigating patients' medical bills. She always wants to hear about how everyday New Yorkers experience the health system. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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