Brooklyn’s embattled Maimonides hospital sees civic leaders’ support

Scores of neighborhood leaders in southern Brooklyn are rallying round beleaguered Maimonides hospital because it bats again complaints of declining affected person care, plummeting funds, fats government compensation and mismanagement.

The 25 leaders co-signed a letter supporting Maimonides’ embattled management and accusing critics — who’ve argued dramatic adjustments are wanted to save lots of Brooklyn’s largest privately run hospital — of waging an assault marketing campaign that’s undermining the medical facility.

“Maimonides just isn’t good – no hospital is – however its management is keen to pay attention and addresses points when raised,” the letter obtained by The Put up stated.

It factors out the COVID-19 pandemic has had “a devastating affect on our communities and created main challenges all through society. All hospitals have confronted monumental strain on staffing and assets.”

The Maimonides supporters additionally lament what’s grow to be a bitter feud over the hospital’s future.

“It’s disheartening to see these international challenges used as a pretext for a divisive, deceptive, dangerous sequence of assaults on the hospital and its workforce – particularly when the hospital has gone above and past to get us by way of the pandemic, visiting neighborhood facilities and locations of worship to offer vaccinations, assist, and knowledge,” the letter acknowledged.

“As neighborhood leaders, we stand with Maimonides and its hardworking staff of clinicians, workers, and directors. We’d encourage everybody to study the info about Maimonides and to make their voices heard in assist of the hospital. Maimonides is a pillar of Brooklyn life which we will all really feel proud to have in our yard.”

The letter is co-signed by leaders of numerous teams together with Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello, vicar of growth for the Brooklyn Catholic Diocese, the Federation of Italian-American Organizations of Brooklyn, United Senior Residents of Sundown Park, the Bangladeshi-American Society, Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, Chinese language American Planning Council, the Arab American Affiliation of NY, the Arthur Ashe Establishment for City Well being, amongst others.

“As a vacation spot middle for superior care and a security internet hospital serving numerous neighborhoods with excessive concentrations of Medicaid sufferers, we’re extremely pleased with the highest tier medical outcomes we’ve been capable of obtain for communities which have suffered from important historic well being disparities.  Working carefully and constructively with neighborhood companions, we’re collectively making a major distinction and are grateful for his or her partnership and assist,” Maimonides stated within the assertion.

The letter is the hospital’s newest counter-offensive aimed toward critics.

However conspicuously lacking are any signatories representing Borough Park’s Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, a key neighborhood served by Maimonides. A lot of the criticism has been lodged by Borough Park activists and sufferers.

The Put up lately revealed Maimonides reported a $145 million loss final 12 months and defaulted on a few of its debt obligations. However the hospital maintained a pot of $1.8 billion in Medicaid reimbursement included on this 12 months’s state finances will assist stabilize its funds.

Complaints about care emerged in July when 5 state lawmakers signed onto a letter calling for hearings into the hospital’s operations, citing lengthy wait instances for care and overwhelmed workers.

The battle took one other twist in August when a kind of lawmakers, state Sen. Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn), labeled one of many teams pushing for a administration overhaul — Save Maimonides — as “not kosher.”

“The motion just isn’t kosher. It’s completely a smear marketing campaign,” stated Felder, whose district consists of closely Orthodox Jewish Borough Park, the place Maimonides is a significant employer.

Allies of the hospital’s present administration have additionally accused critics of making an attempt to take over the hospital.

Maimonides is a” security internet” hospital — which means a lot of its sufferers depend on public medical insurance that pays far lower than non-public insurance coverage for procedures and that the hospital runs on slender margins. About half its sufferers are on Medicaid, the general public medical insurance for the needy, 32% are on Medicare and simply 14% have non-public/business insurance coverage.

Almost half of the residents in its protection space are overseas born and almost half are non-white. Almost a 3rd converse a major language apart from English. Almost a 3rd of its sufferers are Jewish.

The most important critics group, the Save Maimonides Coalition, urged the pro-hospital letter smacked of desperation and a number of the teams that signed had obtained donations from the hospital.

“Maimonides is ranked the worst hospital in New York partially as a result of they’re now not paying for sufficient nurses per shift, and we sympathize with good individuals and good teams that took donations from Ken Gibbs in good religion and are actually getting used to prop up failing management delivering horrible care that’s pushed the hospital to the sting of chapter,” stated Mendy Reiner, co-chair of the Save Maimonides coalition.

Maimonides’ charitable tax-exempt standing filed with the IRS and different public data present a minimum of 4 of the teams that co-signed the letter obtained funding from Maimonides. The Arab American Affiliation obtained $30,000 since 2017; the Arthur Ashe Institute for City Well being obtained $10,000; The Federation of Italian-American Organizations, whose present vice chairman, Frank Naccarato, is Maimonides’s board secretary, obtained $9,000 in 2018; and the Chinese language American Planning Council, as much as $5,000.

Our Woman of Mount Carmel, Monsignor Gigantiello’s parish within the Brooklyn Diocese, obtained $11,000 from Maimonides in 2019.

Maimonides is without doubt one of the metropolis’s final remaining stand-alone main neighborhood hospitals — not owned or tightly built-in into a significant system, like NYU-Langone or Columbia-Presbyterian. Which means it alone carries the prices of again workplace operations like billing and operating its pc and data techniques.