Mt. Sinai has been granted a new injunction preventing the closure of Beth Israel, which is set to close after the East 16th hospital posted losses of about $1 billion over the past decade. Health activists, who point out that Beth Israel is not the only unprofitable hospital in the group’s Manhattan portfolio, won the injunction after making a last-ditch effort to prevent the closure.
The advocacy groups that filed the motion call themselves the Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel and NY Eye & Ear Infirmary. Just this week, a temporary restraining order the coalition obtained in March was already in effect. That restraining order was lifted on August 12 after Judge Nicholas Moyne dismissed the coalition’s original lawsuit, citing the New York State Department of Health’s approval of Mt. Sinai’s amended closure plan last month. Judge Moyne noted, however, that he was doing so without “prejudice” and allowed the plaintiffs to file a slightly amended version of the lawsuit challenging the Department of Health’s decision.
Two days after the original lawsuit was dismissed, the coalition filed a new version with Judge Jeffrey H. Pearlman, who issued the new preliminary injunction against Mt. Sinai on August 15.
“The Department of Health’s approval is arbitrary and capricious and reflects a continued lack of concern for the health care of Manhattan residents,” the plaintiffs wrote in their latest lawsuit, stressing again that closing Beth Israel would mean that hundreds of thousands of downtown New Yorkers would be left with only one branch of a major hospital, a branch of NewYork-Presbyterian on William Street.
The DOH fired back in a letter to the judge. Nicole Gueron, an attorney speaking on behalf of the agency, wrote that the coalition’s “requested preliminary injunction against the DOH is procedurally improper and completely nonsensical and should therefore be denied.”
After the Department of Health approved Mt. Sinai’s closure plan on July 26, the company acknowledged that the original injunction still prevented it from setting a final closure date for Beth Israel. Mount Sinai had originally hoped to cease services on July 12, but the Department of Health was still reviewing the revised closure plan at the time, which created an additional obstacle. The latest injunction has obviously created a new headache for Mt. Sinai regarding the final date.
The coalition not only points out that the hospital is not entirely unprofitable, but also claims that the hospital’s closure is an attempt to take advantage of the lucrative real estate opportunities underneath.
The coalition’s latest lawsuit reiterates that argument. It also repeats allegations that Mt. Sinai’s closure of Beth Israel violated public health, environmental and human rights laws.
Beth Israel opened in 1890 as a hospital for Jewish immigrants who might face discrimination in other hospitals. Since then, it has grown into a major teaching hospital treating patients of all backgrounds.
The series of injunctions is not the only legal rebuke Mt. Sinai has endured during its long battle to close Beth Israel. Last December, Mt. Sinai received a cease-and-desist order from the Department of Health after it began shutting down the hospital’s services without prior approval. In April of this year, the corporation’s first attempt to develop a closure plan was rejected by the state agency (thus requiring a revised plan, which was approved in July).
As of press time, Mt. Sinai did not respond to a request for comment.
