Rockaway's lone medical center would become 15-bed ‘micro hospital’ under state proposal
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A medical worker administers one of the first vaccines at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway in December 2020. Photo courtesy of St. John’s
By David Brand
Months after hundreds of sick and dying COVID-19 patients flooded the emergency room and critical care units at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, the state Health Department is considering a plan to slash beds and gut the medical center.
A consulting firm working with the New York State Department of Health has proposed cutting capacity, eliminating hundreds of employees and turning the Peninsula’s only medical center into a 15-bed “micro hospital,” according to information shared with the Eagle.
St. John’s is located in Far Rockaway’s zip code 11691, home to New York City’s second-highest COVID death rate during the peak of the pandemic. At least 418 zip code residents have so far died of COVID-19, still more in the predominantly Black surrounding communities, according to city data.
St. John’s treated the very first known case of COVID-19 in Queens nearly one year ago.
Last week, however, New York Health Department officials and the consulting firm ToneyKorf Partners LLC presented St. John’s administrators with three drastic cost-cutting proposals, with each plan set to eliminate hospital staff and services, according to the information shared with the Eagle.
One proposal would reduce the number of beds at St. John’s from 257 to 91 while eliminating obstetrics, newborn and pediatric services. Another proposal would turn St. John’s into a 30-bed “health plex” with 337 staff members, down from a current total of 1,126, according to state figures.
The final option would transform the facility into a 15-bed “micro hospital.” Health Department officials favored that proposal, according to a person familiar with the conversations between the state and the hospital.
St. John’s Board Chair Rev. Lawrence Provenzano said the “micro hospital” proposal would eliminate 1,000 employees and devastate the predominantly low-income and working class communities who depend on the safety net hospital.
“The Department of Health is abandoning any consideration of the documented community health needs of this overwhelming underserved population,” Provenzano said.
“How can you reduce health services from this community when they clearly need more? How many more people would have died if the Department of Health’s plan for St. John’s to become a 15-bed micro hospital would have happened before the peak of the pandemic?” he added.
Provenzano called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to discard a plan that would cut funding to the hospital and force it to downsize.
In a statement, Department of Health spokesperson Erin Silk said the state provides more than $60 million to St. John’s each year and “has been working with the management of St. John's Episcopal for several years in an effort to achieve improved health outcomes and access in the Far Rockaways.”
Silk said St John’s agreed to work with another hospital, Mount Sinai South Nassau, which hired ToneyKorf Partners “to help develop strategic options.”
“The Department looks forward to working with the leadership of St. John's Episcopal in reviewing these options, among others, and is continuing to provide substantial operating support to St. John's Episcopal,” she said.
Though ToneyKorf and the state have been considering cost-cutting measures at the privately run hospital since at least 2019, the severity of the latest proposal came as a shock to local leaders.
“This is a death sentence for our community,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, who represented the region in the city council. “We should be talking about more access to healthcare, more hospitals, expanding St. John’s footprint in the Rockaways instead of these ridiculous proposals to reduce bed capacity.”
Richards recalled the early days of the pandemic, less than a year ago, when COVID-sick patients flooded St. John’s and refrigerated trucks parked outside the facility to store dead bodies. The hospital primarily serves Black and Latino New Yorkers and the majority of patients have Medicaid and Medicare.
Several lawmakers have advocated for a larger St. John’s campus with more expansive services. Candidates for an open seat in Council District 31 say they would push for a brand new hospital on the Peninsula.
“To play politics with the lives of Rockaway residents is unconscionable,” Richards said.
The proposals come less than a decade after another medical center in Far Rockaway, Peninsula Hospital, shut down permanently. Peninsula was the last in a string of hospital closures triggered by a report from a task force chaired by investment banker Stephen Berger.
In April 2020, as the COVID-19 death rate in Queens earned the borough the title of “epicenter” of the pandemic, Berger said he stood by the report recommendations. “We have plenty of hospital beds,” he told the Eagle.
This time, the consulting firm ToneyKorf is behind the hospital-gutting proposals. The company has ties to state government.
In August, Cuomo appointed ToneyKorf’s Senior Managing Director Dr. Richard Becker as New York’s deputy secretary for health and human services.
In a statement at the time, Cuomo said Becker and other appointed “represent the best of their fields and bring a wealth of knowledge that will help New York build back better than before.”
ToneyKorf did not provide a response for this story.
Cutting hospital capacity would violate the recommendations in a community health needs assessment commissioned by St. John’s in November 2020. The report described the low-income communities of color that depend on the safety net hospital.
“Amid this highly challenged socioeconomic area, SJEH is considered an essential safety net hospital that offers access and charitable care for those who can’t afford their medical bills,” the report reads.
Richards, the borough president, said he and local community members won’t let St. John’s wither.
“We’re prepared to gear up for a fight,” he said. “If anyone thinks they’re going to close this hospital, they’re wrong.”
