New York Eye and Ear Infirmary (NYEE) of Mount Sinai
As the nation’s emphasis on health care shifts from centralized hospitals that serve the sick to more proactive ways of keeping people healthy, and as more surgeries are safely handled in ambulatory settings, fewer hospitals will be needed.
This transformation is happening throughout New York City. A recent report by the New York Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), titled “One New York – Healthcare for Our Neighborhoods,” cited the closure of 19 city hospitals since 2003 and annual declines in the use of city hospital beds. The HHC report noted that New York City is increasingly moving toward a “system anchored by community-based preventive care.”
Mount Sinai Comprehensive Health Program–Downtown
It is within this changing health care landscape that the Mount Sinai Health System recently made the decision to transform Mount Sinai Beth Israel (MSBI) Hospital over the next four years. Since 2013, Mount Sinai’s leadership has studied the best way to address the many challenges facing MSBI, with its annual 10 percent decline in inpatient census, aging infrastructure unable to meet the needs of the modern health care landscape, and more than $250 million in losses.
Phillips Ambulatory Care Center
To continue “business as usual” was not an option. Before arriving at its decision, Mount Sinai’s leadership considered renovating and upgrading MSBI. This plan, however, would have required a $1.3 billion investment during a time when the hospital would have continued to experience financial losses and new advances in the delivery of care would have rendered a traditional inpatient setting increasingly inefficient and expensive. Decreasing demand for inpatient care and unsustainable financial losses at MSBI became part of the unfortunate reality facing the hospital and ultimately helped shape the vision to create and maintain a more nimble and enhanced downtown footprint.
During the course of the transformation, some programs will remain at MSBI and others will be relocated to different sites within the Health System. All MSBI union employees will be offered union positions at equal pay within the Mount Sinai Health System.
BIMG 55 East 34th Street
Non-bargaining unit (NBU) employees will be eligible to apply for vacancies at Health System hospitals, and on-site training/coaching will be provided to assist in placing as many NBU staff as possible. Any NBU member who cannot be placed within the Health System will receive assistance in finding alternate employment. Additionally, as clinical programs are reconfigured, Mount Sinai will accommodate and place all potentially displaced physicians-in-training within one of its highly ranked programs.
“We realize this transformation will be a time of uncertainty for Mount Sinai Beth Israel employees,” says Jane Maksoud, RN, MPA, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Mount Sinai Health System. “We will make every effort to ease the transition by providing skills-development opportunities, career counseling, and in-placement and outplacement support.”
Mount Sinai Doctors 34th Street
Adds Susan Somerville, RN, President of Mount Sinai Beth Israel: “It is important to understand that this is a gradual transformation that will take place in steps over the next four years. Patient services will be maintained during this time, and in the end we will provide greater access to care than we offer today.” Once plans are finalized, Mount Sinai officials will apply for Certificates of Need through the New York State Department of Health. Faculty and staff will be kept updated as Mount Sinai strengthens its commitment to the Downtown community.