New York Methodist Hospital in the affluent Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn has plans to open an outpatient care center next to its main campus, and those plans are creating extreme tension between New York Methodist and its residential neighbors, who are frustrated with the building plans and the precedent the wealthier hospital is setting with regard to health coverage, according to a report from The New York Times.
Residents, unhappy with the hospital's plan to acquire and demolish 16 neighborhood buildings, are also questioning the hospital's decision not to expand outpatient coverage to underserved areas, especially those served by struggling New York City hospitals including Interfaith Medical Center and Long Island College Hospital.
"If [Interfaith and LICH] go down, then people in those neighborhoods will not gain healthcare by having [central] Methodist bigger," Bennett Kleinberg, a neighborhood resident, told the Times.
In a statement confirmed by the Times, one of New York Methodist's senior vice presidents, Lauren Yedvab, said the hospital already serves many low-income patients from the Flatbush and Crown Heights neighborhoods of Brooklyn, and expanding the main campus would create a better experience for all stakeholders, according to the report.