Hospitals are greater than buildings. They’re the individuals who work inside them—the nurses, medical doctors and employees who dedicate their lives to caring for sufferers, typically underneath unattainable circumstances. I’ve spent my profession combating for New York’s nurses, and I do know firsthand that when a hospital is under-resourced or compelled to reduce, it’s the frontline employees who bear the burden first. And when they’re stretched too skinny, affected person care suffers.
That’s why Lenox Hill Hospital’s future isn’t nearly bricks and mortar—it’s about investing within the individuals who make this hospital a necessary a part of New York’s healthcare system. At a time when too many hospitals are closing or struggling to remain afloat, Northwell Well being and Lenox Hill are making a unique selection: to take a position sooner or later, guaranteeing that the nurses, medical doctors, and employees have the hospital they should proceed delivering the very best customary of care.
After near a decade of conversations with the neighborhood, Lenox Hill Hospital has formally submitted its renewal plan with the Metropolis of New York. As with every large concepts, there are folks afraid of change who oppose the proposal. However this debate isn’t nearly Lenox Hill Hospital—it’s in regards to the message we ship to hospitals throughout New York. If we make it tougher to put money into healthcare infrastructure, we’re signaling that hospitals are expendable, and by extension, healthcare suppliers are expendable. We can not enable that to occur, particularly when the federal authorities is poised to slash Medicaid and Medicare funding, placing much more monetary strain on hospitals that serve essentially the most weak sufferers. Each delay, each lower, each missed alternative to put money into hospital infrastructure results in actual penalties for actual folks.
For 160 years, Lenox Hill has been a pillar of this metropolis and the Higher East Facet neighborhood. Our nurses have been there by way of a number of the most difficult moments. We had been on the entrance traces of the COVID-19 pandemic, caring for sufferers in essentially the most dire circumstances, pushing themselves past exhaustion as a result of their sufferers wanted them. They’re those comforting households within the ER, holding a affected person’s hand after surgical procedure, and ensuring that New Yorkers—irrespective of who they’re or the place they arrive from—obtain the care they deserve. Nurses know higher than anybody that healthcare is about folks, not simply insurance policies. That’s why we can not afford to permit hospitals to shrink when affected person wants develop and evolve.
Lenox Hill is not only a neighborhood hospital. It serves sufferers from throughout the town, with greater than a 3rd coming from the outer boroughs. For 1000’s of individuals in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, Lenox Hill is the hospital they flip to due to the belief they’ve in its medical doctors, nurses and specialists. Greater than 60 p.c of Lenox Hill Hospital’s sufferers depend on Medicare or Medicaid, packages more and more underneath menace from federal funding cuts. These sufferers can not afford to lose entry to care, but with out funding, that’s precisely the chance we face.
Hospitals mustn’t have to decide on between survival and modernization. But throughout the nation, too many are being compelled to make that selection. Rising bills, workforce shortages and outdated amenities strain hospitals to chop again relatively than broaden. We’ve seen this occur earlier than; each time it does, the individuals who undergo most are those that can least afford it. Right here in New York, we now have a option to make—can we enable hospitals to shrink underneath these pressures, or can we help efforts to put money into them to allow them to proceed offering take care of generations to return?
Lenox Hill Hospital and Northwell Well being have made their selection. They’re selecting to develop and help a healthcare system that may meet the altering wants of New Yorkers. With this constructing, they’re selecting to put money into the nurses, medical doctors and hospital employees who present up day-after-day to take care of sufferers. Now, our neighborhood and metropolis ought to do the identical.
If we enable hospitals to wrestle with out funding, we’re not simply compromising a facility—we’re placing the well being and security of sufferers in danger. The nurses and employees at Lenox Hill, like our colleagues throughout the town, already work underneath immense strain to take care of sufferers who typically have nowhere else to show. They can’t do their jobs correctly if hospitals are allowed to deteriorate, and sufferers can not obtain the care they deserve if amenities can not meet demand.
New Yorkers deserve higher. The nurses, medical doctors and hospital employees who preserve Lenox Hill operating day-after-day deserve higher. And the 140,000 sufferers who stroll by way of its doorways every year can not afford for us to get this mistaken.
Kathleen Flynn, RN, is President of the New York Skilled Nurses Union, which represents the nurses of Lenox Hill Hospital.
