Hospitals are greater than buildings. They’re the individuals who work inside them—the nurses, docs and employees who dedicate their lives to caring for sufferers, usually underneath unattainable circumstances. I’ve spent my profession combating for New York’s nurses, and I do know firsthand that when a hospital is under-resourced or compelled to cut back, it’s the frontline staff who bear the burden first. And when they’re stretched too skinny, affected person care suffers.
That’s why Lenox Hill Hospital’s future isn’t nearly bricks and mortar—it’s about investing within the individuals who make this hospital a vital a part of New York’s healthcare system. At a time when too many hospitals are closing or struggling to remain afloat, Northwell Well being and Lenox Hill are making a special selection: to take a position sooner or later, making certain that the nurses, docs, and employees have the hospital they should proceed delivering the very best commonplace of care.
After near a decade of conversations with the group, Lenox Hill Hospital has formally submitted its renewal plan with the Metropolis of New York. As with all massive concepts, there are folks afraid of change who oppose the proposal. However this debate isn’t nearly Lenox Hill Hospital—it’s concerning the message we ship to hospitals throughout New York. If we make it more durable to spend money on healthcare infrastructure, we’re signaling that hospitals are expendable, and by extension, healthcare suppliers are expendable. We can’t enable that to occur, particularly when the federal authorities is poised to slash Medicaid and Medicare funding, placing much more monetary strain on hospitals that serve probably the most susceptible sufferers. Each delay, each minimize, each missed alternative to spend money on hospital infrastructure results in actual penalties for actual folks.
For 160 years, Lenox Hill has been a pillar of this metropolis and the Higher East Facet group. Our nurses have been there by among the most difficult moments. We have been on the entrance strains of the COVID-19 pandemic, caring for sufferers in probably the most dire circumstances, pushing themselves past exhaustion as a result of their sufferers wanted them. They’re those comforting households within the ER, holding a affected person’s hand after surgical procedure, and ensuring that New Yorkers—irrespective of who they’re or the place they arrive from—obtain the care they deserve. Nurses know higher than anybody that healthcare is about folks, not simply insurance policies. That’s why we can’t afford to permit hospitals to shrink when affected person wants develop and evolve.
Lenox Hill isn’t just a neighborhood hospital. It serves sufferers from throughout the town, with greater than a 3rd coming from the outer boroughs. For hundreds of individuals in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, Lenox Hill is the hospital they flip to due to the belief they’ve in its docs, nurses and specialists. Greater than 60 % of Lenox Hill Hospital’s sufferers depend on Medicare or Medicaid, applications more and more underneath menace from federal funding cuts. These sufferers can’t afford to lose entry to care, but with out funding, that’s precisely the danger we face.
Hospitals shouldn’t have to decide on between survival and modernization. But throughout the nation, too many are being compelled to make that selection. Rising bills, workforce shortages and outdated amenities strain hospitals to chop again moderately than develop. We’ve seen this occur earlier than; each time it does, the individuals who undergo most are those that can least afford it. Right here in New York, we have now a option to make—will we enable hospitals to shrink underneath these pressures, or will we help efforts to spend money on them to allow them to proceed offering take care of generations to come back?
Lenox Hill Hospital and Northwell Well being have made their selection. They’re selecting to develop and help a healthcare system that may meet the altering wants of New Yorkers. With this constructing, they’re selecting to spend money on the nurses, docs and hospital employees who present up day-after-day to take care of sufferers. Now, our group and metropolis ought to do the identical.
If we enable hospitals to wrestle with out funding, we’re not simply compromising a facility—we’re placing the well being and security of sufferers in danger. The nurses and employees at Lenox Hill, like our colleagues throughout the town, already work underneath immense strain to take care of sufferers who usually have nowhere else to show. They can’t do their jobs correctly if hospitals are allowed to deteriorate, and sufferers can’t obtain the care they deserve if amenities can’t meet demand.
New Yorkers deserve higher. The nurses, docs and hospital employees who maintain Lenox Hill working day-after-day deserve higher. And the 140,000 sufferers who stroll by its doorways every year can’t afford for us to get this fallacious.
Kathleen Flynn, RN, is President of the New York Skilled Nurses Union, which represents the nurses of Lenox Hill Hospital.
