Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in New York City has started diverting patients to other hospitals as it moves to close more than 200 beds by July 1, according to BK Reader.
The planned closure of inpatient services at the hospital, owned by One Brooklyn Health System in New York, has been in the works since 2018. Under a $700 million consolidation plan, One Brooklyn Health plans to turn Kingsbrook into a medical village providing emergency services, primary, specialty and post-acute care.
Inpatient care at Kingsbrook was supposed to close June 30, 2020, but the closure was delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement to BK Reader, One Brooklyn Health CEO LaRay Brown said with all acute and surgical beds slated to close July 1, the health system has started moving nursing home residents who may require longer stays to a sister facility.
Members of the community and hospital staff have raised concerns about the closure, saying it puts patients at risk. A committee formed to fight the closure has called the plan racist, as 85 percent of the community Kingsbrook services is Black, and 48 percent are immigrants, according to BK Reader.
Ms. Brown told the publication that "residents' lives are absolutely not being put at risk. The determination to transfer a resident is strictly based on that resident's clinical condition."
Ms. Brown added all hospital staff affected by the change have been offered positions at other One Brooklyn facilities.