LICH Update: NYU Langone Joins Fortis to Rival Brooklyn Hospital Bid

See updates after the jump. TWC/NY1 News reports that NYU Langone Medical Center has joined in the bid by real estate developer Fortis Property Group, a bid that was earlier tabled by the SUNY board, to close Long Island College Hospital, convert most of its campus to residential use, and provide on the site a “medical mall” that would include ”an urgent care center, physical therapy facilities and office surgery.” This proposal, unlike the one by Brooklyn Hospital, wouldn’t include an emergency room with ambulance service.

Update: according to Crain’s, the NYU Langone/Fortis proposal would now include “a freestanding emergency department, cancer center, ambulatory surgery center and multispecialty physician practice.” Second update: The Eagle today reports that the Fortis/NYU Langone proposal has been expanded to include Lutheran Medical Center, which “would provide dental health, primary care and behavioral health.”

On a different but related subject, see Denis Hamill’s Daily News column about Stanley Brezenoff, Mayor de Blasio’s choice as labor advisor, and his efforts to kill LICH in order to “unlock” its real estate value.

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  • LICHpatient

    Wel then I have to wonder if Joe Lhota sold us out to benefit his new employer. The community gets nothing out of this deal – no real ER, no stroke and heart attack emergency care, loses the only angioplasty heart center in the area, ends up with no hospital & our lives depending on traffic. Let’s not forrget the 20 buildings that Hasidic Williamsburg developer Fortis will be converting into hundreds of condos. Can you say Boro Park? No thanks. Not impressed with NYU’s offer.
    But It would be a horse of another color if Fortis was out of the picture & NYU had offered a proposal for a hospital & real emergency room with the critical services we need in the community. But as it is, they propose a non-emergent “emergency room” that doesn’t treat emergencies & will have ambulances waiting to drive you to NYU or Lutheran or Downstate, depending on whether you have good insurance or not.
    And don’t even consider that other proposal from Brooklyn Hospital. That’s just more of the same that SUNY did:. Take over LICH to grab the real estate, close the hospital, sell the property, steal its patients, & bail itself out of its own financial hole.
    Hopefully, by now the elected officials who got tricked by SUNY & blinded with being “Brooklyn-ccentric”, have learned a lesson & won’t make the same mistake twice.

  • nombre

    jen What don’t you get? There won’t BE a LICH for folks from anywhere to go to. LICH will be luxury condos & its other buildings will be apartments & condos for the developers Hasidim. There will be an urgent care emergency room thrown in that you can go to if you stub your toe. Anything more serious can’t be treated there & they will transport you to Manhattan – if you have insurance that they like. This plan is totally unacceptable. It’s a land grab and a insured-patient grab for NYU. They want our real estate, they want our health insurance, but they don’t want to give us what we need – a real emergency room, with critical services & a full service hospital.

    JoeLhota didn’t say a word about LICH all summer when there were daily protests, arrests, storming the exec offices, etc. If he’s speaking up now he should tell NYU to go back to the drawing board & draw in a real hospital.

  • nombre

    It wouldn’t be an overhaul. It would be a closure. There would no longer be a LICH. Our lawsuit was to stop that from happening. They need to revise the plan & be committed to operating a full service hospital with critical emergency services.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    This isn’t a rich vs poor problem. Heart attacks, strokes and all kinds of accidents befall rich and poor alike. All the money in the world won’t make a difference to you when the seconds it takes to get to an ER count.

  • nombre

    But they won’t have anything there but an urgent care, out patient, & offices. Noreal ER, No stroke or heart emergency care, no angioplasty center, no critical care, no surgical services. Don’t be blinded by the name. Pay attention. They aren’t bringing their world class hospital to Brooklyn. They want to bring you to Manhattan – if you have the right insurance.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    No, just a greedy unethical few, putting all the people in the area in jeopardy, rich and poor alike.

  • nombre

    #1. LICH didn’t lose the money. Continuum Health siphoned it off. Then SUNY deliberately prevented it from making any & did so illegally. It’s not LICH’s loss. SUNY needs to be charged with criminal charges.
    #2.Brooklyn Hospital cannot replace LICH. It doesn’t have the same services. It can’t treat heart attacks or stroke hemorrhages. LICH has the only angioplasty center in the area this side of Methodist.
    How about we throw out the mismanagers & restore LICH with a competent responsible operator.
    Reopen the RFP to find them.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    A truly ignorant statement. This devious plot has been going on for decades.
    You sound more like a “Hick on Hicks”

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    Shill

  • nombre

    All designed to siphon to Manhattan as many Brooklynites with insurance as they can. It’s killing Brooklyn. WWhile they’re shutting down hospitals here telling us NYC has too many beds, they’re building expansions for more beds at all those Manhattan hospitals.

  • nombre

    I would welcome to them to the nabe too if they were actually coming here with an emergency room that could take care of me in an emergency & a real hospital to back it up. All its coming in with is an urgent care room & thousands of Hasidics for Fortis apartments.

  • nombre

    LICH didn’t lose any such thing. Especially last year. LICH didn’t lose any money at all. SUNY threw away millions with its illegal actions at LICH

  • north heights res

    More than a whiff of anti-Semitism in the vitriol directed here at Hasidim.

  • hh

    Exactly. And for the record, Brooklyn Hospital does not have a neurosurgical services or cardiac angioplasty so it doesn’t take heart attack victims & has only non-surgical stroke care. Brooklyn Hospital doesn’t have the same level of services as LICH & cannot replace LICH in these life threatening emergencies. So what good it is it when seconds matter? That’s my response to anyone who says don’t worry there’s another hospital just 2 miles away. If they close LICH as a hospital & replace it with a NON-critical emergency room urgent care center, I will be very worried because my life could depend on traffic..

  • gbkm

    This is the best post I have ever seen on this blog!

  • Doc

    Actually, that statement is not correct & you are very wrong. The facts are that LICH was nationally ranked again in 2013 for the 3rd yr in a row as one of only 2 best hospitals in Brooklyn, & one of the top 25 in NY. Death rates, patient safety, and hospital reputation were a few of the factors considered. Thousands of hospitals were evaluated. Along with being one of only 2 best hospitals in Brooklyn & one of only 2 safest hospitals in Brooklyn, LICH ranked with 5 top performing specialities, even as SUNY was in the midst of sabotaging it to kill one of our best hospitals. The data is published, if you need to see for yourself.

  • Remsen Street

    LICH facts dude, do not make up stories to support your view. LICH lost money for 18-19 years in a row and is up to about 500 million in red.

  • Remsen Street

    Do not make up stories dude. LICH lost money for 18-19 years in a row and now 500 million in red.

  • Remsen Street

    Ahh yes anytyime any person has a different thought you make up stuff and shout them down. There are other opionions then yours.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    No, just that comments contrary to the majority and common sense, posted by “first timers” reek of shill. For more cogent responses please see my posts below.

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    Here is the opinion of LICH Board member, Dr. Saul Melman, who has been an ER physician for many years
    and certainly speaks from experience:

    “My opinion with regards to the understanding of the NYU-Fortis plan, specifically that the LICH ED will be ransformed into a “stand alone Emergency Room”
    without a full service hospital to provide services is a misnomer.

    “Stand alone ER’s ” work well in rural areas where
    distances/transport times between health care institutions is great. In these situations, stand alone ED’s function to stabilize ill patients so they may be transported to other hospital where greater/intensive intervention is required.
    With the NYU-Fortis plan the LICH “Emergency Room” would in truth be an urgent care center as no critically ill patient would ever be transported to the ER by ambulance AND most patients with critical illness/or illnesses
    requiring urgent or emergent intervention who would arrive via private car or taxi would be better off going to an ER that is affiliated/attached to a full service hospital that care for patients suffering from stroke heart attack GI bleeding etc. etc. – longer transport.

    The proposed ‘Stand alone ER’ is smoke and mirrors – this is of critical importance if the community surrounding LICH wants an emergency room which can provide emergent care and there and then immediately transfer care to inpatient services at LICH where minutes may make the difference between life and death – they should be aware that “stand-alone ER” would not provide this.”

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    Please get your own name Remsen Street — don’t use one so close to mine

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    Stop using a name so similar to mine.

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    Make up a new name, Remsen Street.

  • marshasrimler

    How do you know the developers are Hasidim?

  • marshasrimler

    I agree

  • William

    It’s no secret who it is. Fortis Property Group = Louis & Joel Kestenbaum of Williamsburg. They are also ODA of Williamsburg. For more check out:http://louiskestenbaum.blogspot.com/2006/12/all-about-me-you-can-see-at-my-new-blog.html

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    Busload of HealthCare Advocates Deliver 18,000 petition signature to SUNY Trustees to Keep LICH open as Full Service Hospital.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70eG2eBD8wY&feature=youtu.be

  • hospitalsNOTcondos

    THIS is Fortis Property Group:

    $1M handout to ill health ‘exec’
    By BRAD HAMILTON
    brad.hamilton@nypost.com

    Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/handout_to_ill_health_exec_Ge4FgIAzCgol3jgd9cFKFN#ixzz1Z0iB4Z28

  • hospitalsNOTcondos

    and this is Fortis Property Group:

    brothers Louis and Moshe Kestenbaum – who in 1991 pleaded guilty to a scheme to sell…

    Read more:
    http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/boroughs/real-estate-biz-boosts-yassky-run-expand-war-chest-50g-article-1.602528