An ongoing exodus of healthcare workers from Mount Sinai Beth Israel is posing risks to patient safety "in the very near future," Politico reported July 17.
The New York City-based hospital had expected to close July 12, but remains open until the state approves its new closure plan. Since submitting its original closure plan in October, around 450 employees have left on their own and the hospital has transitioned many others to different hospitals.
"Staffing instability has reached a critical point where we are no longer able to continue reliably providing safe patient care," Liz Sellman, the hospital's president and COO, said in an affirmation filed July 15. "Staffing at the hospital is sufficiently thin and unstable that even a relatively minor event, such as staff calling out sick, could have a debilitating and potentially life-threatening effect at the hospital. These are not appropriate conditions under which to operate a hospital."
Hospital leaders and staff are raising the alarm on the widening staffing gaps in hopes of accelerating the state Health Department's review process and convincing a judge to loosen a restraining order that blocks the hospital from downsizing services.
Current and former workers also told Politico they fear quality of care has already suffered due to downsizing services and relocating staff. They said they consider the situation to be at least partly self-inflicted as the hospital started transferring healthcare workers to different Mount Sinai locations. For example, staffing in perioperative care dropped from 92 employees in December to 33 in March.
"We know that all of you who remain at the hospital have been doing everything possible to serve our patients and keep them safe," Beth Israel executives wrote in a memo to staff obtained by Politico. "We are using our best efforts to recruit and to bring in staff from other campuses, temporary (locum) doctors and other providers, and agency nurses to help you provide high-quality care. Despite that, we have not been able to bring in all the staff that we would like to."
The hospital is closing due to a decline in emergency medical visits in the past decade, but about 4,000 patients still go to the emergency room every month.
Health Department spokesperson Erin Clary told Politico that "the Department has been in regular communication with Mount Sinai leadership regarding staffing concerns and to ensure patient safety. The closure plan remains under review and as a result, the Department cannot comment further."
Mount Sinai submitted its initial closure plan in October 2023, then submitted a revised July 12 closure plan after the health department said the original plan was incomplete.
"We chose that specific day because it was the furthest date we believed we could reliably keep the hospital open safely," Brendan Carr, MD, CEO of Mount Sinai, and Elizabeth Sellman, president and COO of Mount Sinai Beth Israel, said in a July 10 internal memo shared with Becker's. "We will, of course, not commence the closure process without approval by the state and until the legal hurdles are cleared, but there is urgency as there are risks associated with keeping the hospital open beyond the proposed date."
The department is still reviewing the revised plan.