Save LICH from Karl Junkersfeld on Vimeo.

Karl and Cam Cover #SaveLICH Rally

By on August 2, 2013 11:48 pm in Cobble Hill, Government, Health, News

(Video after the jump.) Mr. J. and his cam were on hand, and in very good position (how many MSM camera jocks did you have to elbow aside, Karl?) to record Public Advocate Bill de Blasio; Oscar nominee, The Wire star, and Brooklyn Heights resident Amy Ryan; and Brooklyn Heights Association Vice President Jane McGroarty, all giving impassioned pleas to save Long Island College Hospital.

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  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales

    Henry LOL: to save you the trouble of having to post in response to this, I have listed below every argument you have made, or seem to be capable of making:

    1. Boo, unions!

    2. LICH is a dump.

    3. There’s another hospital just over the bridge.

    4. I once had a horrible experience there.

    5. NOBODY wants a hospital in their town. NOBODY!

    6, You’re so transparent!

    7. BWAHAAAAAA!

  • gbkm

    The community has been fighting for LICH along with the staffers but this is taking that to another level & was great to see. Kudos to all. Theres no denying it now – it’s certainly a force to be reckoned with. Thanks for the wonderful video documentation

  • Ernie

    Did not watch the whole video. See that Councilman Levin was there – was Councilman Lander (whose district includes LICH) there?

  • Peggy

    We are a force to be reckoned with! Good will prevail! 150 years of helping citizens to good health will endure! It’s ludicrous to think that these neighborhoods can survive without a hospital in the vicinity. Let’s get a concerned, experienced, non corrupt, hospital operator in here and we can be even greater!

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    Not this one — but Councilman Lander has been at just about every Save LICH rally there was. Also co-sponsored City Council resolution to save LICH, got arrested for the cause, etc. (Just for the record.)

  • lois

    Good to see you back on the job, Karl. I see Dr. Jack in front at the beginning of the video – he has been involved in this struggle from the beginning and is not ready to give up.

  • lois

    …and I am glad to hear someone finally mention the mayor and his lack of participation in this struggle.

  • Susan Raboy

    Thank you for this video!! We will not stop till we win this battle to Save LICH. Rally this Monday with Rep. Nydia Velazquez 11AM in front of LICH @ HIcks St.(between Atlantic & Pacific). Spread the news. Patients For LICH will be there. Please Join us!

  • Joe A

    8. Shill

  • William Spier

    Claude,

    HenryLOL is some sort off local one off and probably thinks he is some sort of libertarian. He comes off though as a right wing crackpot. Whatever motivates him to act like a yahoo on this blog, nobody really cares.

    On a serious note: At this point the autopsy on Brooklyn health care should serve as a lesson for the entire county. We have all the factors at work here that take the medical delivery system into a free fall: weak community and political involvement over the years; big urban sized medicaid dependent population with historically complex medical issues; a failure to establish community health centers to mitigate hospital usage; state legislature ineptitude; cronyism; a national health policy aimed at diminishing hospital support; too many mediocre or worse physicians; and on….

    The ham handed way Downstate took down LICH is an example of the desperation all of the above brought about. The result was LICH, the best hospital by far in an area of over a million people, fell victim to moribund state government and a national medical priorities way past their creative period.

  • Marathoner

    In case you don’t have time to watch, here’s a summary:

    LICH serves a community of 75,000… and about 12 showed up to ‘save’ it (mostly union reps, and two lovely neighbors)

    The mayor underestimated the lawyers that would show up to fight for LICH

    Brooklynites are gritty fighters (with no capitalist sense)

    Close the hospital and let an opportunist capitalist open an urgent care center like they have on the west side, if there’s a need

    But let’s not fight to keep a losing hospital open just because it is a change from yesterday

    Amy Ryan moved to Brooklyn Heights from the West Village because St Vincent’s closed – she found LICH had an ER with no wait

    There are a lot more red lines on the map after LICH closes leaving many people perilously far from an ER

    SUNY can’t manage LICH – we need a private, competent operator to take over management (or it should be closed and sold for parts)

  • Ernie

    Thanks

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales

    On the subject of private, competent operators, there was an interesting piece in the Economist recently about St. Goran’s Hospital in Sweden: http://www.economist.com/news/business/21578020-sweden-leading-world-allowing-private-companies-run-public-institutions-hospital

    Of course Sweden’s health care delivery system is different from ours, and doesn’t suffer from all the problems outlined in William Spier’s comment above.

  • Marathoner

    Interesting article – thanks for posting… I have to think that if the article were describing LICH, we’d all be enjoying our Saturday instead of battling to save LICH

    With the concerns over ER services, does the urgent care center opening on Court and Remsen not make more sense than an entire hospital hemorrhaging $50M per year?

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales

    I wasn’t aware of an urgent care center opening at Court and Remsen. What would such a center offer? Can it handle anything a fully equipped ER can?

    As far as LICH losing money, I’m inclined to believe that is because of deliberate mismanagement, i.e. sabotage, first by Continuum then by SUNY. Continuum bled LICH to serve its more profitable hospitals in Manhattan, and probably wanted to close and sell it, but the NY Health Dep’t. wouldn’t let them. SUNY saw the LICH property as its financial salvation.

  • Rick

    I’d be interested in your answer, too. I thought that urgent care centers are only of limited value, able to treat minor problems, but only able to attempt to stabilize a patient with more dire problems. And that they lack the resources that are often necessary in emergencies like heart attack or stroke to actually deal with the problem. Meaning that the patient must be moved again to a hospital with a full ER, with additional risk to life, and more time spent before the problem is dealt with. Not to mention that I don’t think ambulances will transport to them. Am I wrong?

  • slyvester

    This video is edited and shortened. The actual demonstration lasted 20 to 30 minutes. Steve Levin was present, and did speak to the crowd. As an introduction, Bill de Blasio joked to the crowd about being “cell mates” with Steve Levin after they were arrested on 42nd Street at the SUNY headquarters. Didn’t see Brad Lander there.

  • HenryLoL

    He is not participating in the debate because it is ABSURD! The only reason the idiots are there is because they need votes.

  • HenryLoL

    If you want to post here so a bunch of people just like you can sing along and bang on the table, do ahead. The hospital is closing. There is no need to keep it open.

  • Marathoner

    so, the theory is that Continuum bought it, robbed the vault, dished it to SUNY who neglected it in favor of Downstate/others and now it’s just a carcass left for the vultures?

    Plausible, but if that’s the case, why not close it or look for a competent manager? Instead of ‘Saving’ it, why not court an operator that can run it?

    The media coverage makes this look like little more than press events – I don’t hear anyone putting forth a plan that makes sense – just a plea to continue running a nearly defunct government entity that effectively allowed itself to be run into the ground

    The time to save it was when mismanagement was ripening

    An ER with no wait time, i.e. other patients, sounds like it might be a bit excessive

    Further, as far as the ‘red’ maps, I can’t see how this represents a public safety hazard – yes, drive time will increase by a couple minutes, but you’re still closer to an ER than 90% of our suburban counterparts, which does not seem like a strong case for keeping this beast alive

    A re-org plan with a business case would be more likely to generate interest than a bunch of unions fighting to preserve membership

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    If you would read the details of what’s transpired in The Brooklyn Eagle and/or the Red Hook Star-Revue, you would know that, despite what SUNY may say, its actions show that its real agenda is to sell off the LICH real estate. In other words, take the money and run rather, than turn LICH over to another operator

  • David on Middagh

    The ordering of these comments is messed up.

  • Rick

    I agree that the case being made by the unions to save jobs is probably the one least likely to get enough support during hard times. That won’t save the hospital.

    And I agree with you that an operator who actually wants to run it as a hospital is who should be courted.

    But it will be much more expensive to re-start a closed hospital than transfer and reorganize a functioning and staffed one. SUNY shouldn’t be be permitted to just close it down to make a sale to real estate developers a fait accompli. But it does appear that is their strategy, to pretend to be looking at selling to another healthcare provider while making such a sale impossible, so as to be able to sell it for the largest sum to developers.

    An honest 3rd party should be brought in by government or judicial to oversee a sale to whoever is willing to continue to run it as a hospital.

  • Rick

    It seems to me that the absence of the mayor and governor might be because they think they’ll have a bigger headache if SUNY starts to go down, and they hope the funds from selling LICH for the land could keep SUNY afloat for a while. A poor (and short-sided) decision I think, but one a politician might make if they were cynical enough to want to make it “someone else’s problem” years from now, when they are safely out of office.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales

    The problem, as others have pointed out, is that once it’s closed it becomes practically impossible to re-open it with a new operator, no matter how competent, I don’t know the complexities of the state Department of Health regulations, but I’m told that this is so.

    The only way SUNY will allow it to be transferred intact as a health care facility is if someone pays them the amount they could expect to receive from a sale to a developer or developers, which I’ve heard could be close to $1 billion. So, our only hope is that the courts have the courage to keep SUNY from closing it.

    While distances to ERs in the suburbs may be greater, travel times are typically faster. And “a couple minutes” can mean the difference between life and death.

  • Marathoner

    It’s really an unfortunate situation, and too bad things have come to this, but the political strategy and business strategy just don’t seem viable – looks more like pols showing up for publicity and to friend a few unions

    As far as the ER goes, the Mayo Clinic and NIH show that critical the most critical survival factor following heart attack the arrival of BLS – not arrival to an ER.

    Oxygen, CPR/AED and basic meds less than 15 minutes following a heart attack show a dramatic increase in survival rates

    Which actually makes the FDNY your key to survival, not the ER

    After that, your best bet is prevention

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    Is there a doctor in the house? It seems to me that while preliminary treatment in an ambulance is very important, treatment in a cardiac unit like LICH is essential. And, then there are strokes, etc.