By

Michael Schwirtz

 

Today’s New York Times described in detail the deplorable conditions of a Brooklyn Hospital. In brief the conditions of this hospital should be found in an undeveloped country, not in a major metropolis of the United States.

 

University Hospital is publicly funded and part of SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. It gets 80% of its revenue from government programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Dr. Robert Foronjy, the hospital’s chief of pulmonary care medicine, admitted that the hospital suffers from inadequate resources- “aged and crumbling facilities.”

 

The hospital built in 1963 was planned to accommodate 60,000 visits a year. Today, it has close to 200,000 visits annually.  For many years the hospital has been bleeding cash, millions of dollars every week. It has been poorly managed and guilty of violating safety standards.

 

Audits have found that hospital leaders have used government money on lavish birthday celebrations in Bermuda for a consultant who was paid tens of millions of dollars, but did very little to help the hospital’s finances. 

 

Hospital workers complain that their under-resourced hospital is being asked to manage the epicenter of the Covid 19 crisis. At times hundreds of Covid 19 patients, coughing and fevering were packed into hallways and side rooms. The NY Times reported that these patients were spewing virus into the air. The hospital suffers from antiquated infrastructure-not even a modern communication system to call out to nurses. 

 

The mortality rate (never officially disclosed) at the hospital is very high. Bodies have filled two refrigerated tractor-trailers parked outside. The hospital’s mortician has had to hire six additional staff members to manage the morgue.

 

The nurses do not have sufficient protective gear and have insufficient resources to monitor ventilators, which require constant calibration.

 

In conclusion, University Hospital is a disgrace that represents multi-faceted bureaucratic failure for generations.