SUNY Will Re-Open Request for Proposals for LICH

By on January 28, 2014 11:34 pm in Cobble Hill, Health, News, Real Estate

NY1 reports that SUNY “will reopen the Long Island College Hospital request for proposals and allow the public to view developers’ plans for the struggling Brooklyn hospital.” The story indicates that SUNY has sent letters “to all firms that submitted proposals in response to its July 2013 RFP,” inviting them to “clarify or modify their proposals,” with a deadline of this coming Monday, February 3. It is not clear from this whether new, as opposed to modified or clarified, proposals will be considered. Proposals will have to be made public before any contract is awarded, but it is not clear how long the public will have to view and comment on proposals before SUNY makes its decision.

RELATED: CHA’s Strabone Responds To LICH RFP News

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  • Susan Raboy

    SUNY’sTrustess are playing games as they are trying to avoid Tues. 2/11’s contempt hearing. This is unacceptable. I want a new transparent RFP process that reflects the needs of the communities served by LICH and their doctors, nurses, health workers and patients. A new RFP that is written to encourage hospitals to respond not just realtors or those only interested in a partial urgent care facility. And not condos!

    Nothing less than a full service hospital will do and I for one will fight till my last breath for this.

    Are they going to make available all 31 original respondents’ proposals and ask them to submit changes by 2/3. Which is not a very long time.

    The only thing that is transparent is that SUNY’s Trustees are running scared and in fear of being found to be in contempt of court.

    I look forward to seeing them in court on 2/11.

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    LICH Rally today at 4PM – To Open the RFP Process

    Join us today for a community rally with our community advocates including Leticia James, Joan Millman, Daniel Squadron. SUNY must re-open the RFP process to full-service hospital providers (not real estate developers) and LICH stakeholder — community groups, patients, doctors, nurses, other LICH staff and elected officials — must be included in the process.

    See http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/suny-%E2%80%98reopens%E2%80%99-lich-bidding-%E2%80%93-just-those-who-already-bid-2014-01-29-015800

  • Susan Raboy

    I would like to thank all of our elected officials for joining us in this frigid weather. Sure hope someone took a photo of the group and it is published. Their support is crucial in our fight to keep LICH Open as a full service hospital so I thank them!

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    January 29, 2014

    Statement from Patients for LICH about the SUNY RFP Process

    LICH patients and other community stakeholders are unwavering in our recognition of the need for a full-service hospital at LICH. Although SUNY’s prior RFI process elicited interest from would-be hospital operators, SUNY officials have indicated that no bidders came forward
    in the RFP process to operate a full-service hospital. We maintain that this process was flawed and
    misrepresented LICH finances, deterring hospital operators; hence, our insistence that the RFP process be fully reopened.

    SUNY’s letter of January 28, 2014 to RFP respondents regarding opening the LICH RFP process for a few days and only to previous bidders ignores the concerns of
    LICH patients and other stakeholders who have called for a new RFP process. The legality of this limited re-opening is questionable. It also belies SUNY officials’ statements to their own Trustees, who have been told time and time again, in response to their questions in Trustee meetings, that the RFP process followed required state procedures and could not be re-opened.

    SUNY’s
    letter to RFP respondents proves that the RFP process can indeed be
    modified. We are asking SUNY and its
    Board of Trustees for the following modifications:

    1.
    To
    open the RFP process to all interested parties.

    2.
    To
    extend the process for a reasonable length of time in order to allow
    full-service hospital operators to apply.

    3.
    To
    work with community stakeholders to revise the RFP priorities and evaluation
    criteria so as to attract full-service hospital operators rather than real
    estate developers. (In that regard, the
    letter is particularly egregious in stating that special consideration will be
    given to groups that can get the money fast and do not need approvals.)

    4.
    To
    specify that ‘additional interested parties’ to participate in the evaluation
    must be LICH stakeholders: patients; physicians, nurses, and other LICH
    employees; representatives of community organizations; and elected
    officials.

    In
    May 2011, when SUNY Downstate took over operation of LICH, the Attorney
    General’s and NYS Supreme Court’s approval of the transfer was premised on
    SUNY’s maintaining LICH as a full-service, acute-care hospital. The court
    documents at that time – just over two and a half years ago – went into great
    detail on the need for and importance of a full-service hospital at LICH. That need is even greater today and into the
    future, given the growing population of our communities, as well as LICH’s
    strategic location for disaster response.

    Finally,
    we are not unmindful of current losses at LICH.
    But those losses stem from SUNY officials’ refusal to admit patients,
    closing departments including surgery, and removing the residency program,
    among other actions — so the hospital currently has little income. The RFP
    process cannot be held hostage to SUNY’s choice to incur these losses. The priority for the RFP evaluation must be
    our communities’ long term health care needs.

    Contact:

    Sue
    Raboy

    Patients for LICH

    suerab1@gmail.com

    917.822.4381

    718.237.0931