Brooklyn Hospital’s Doctors Want To Cut Ties With Parent Company
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Doctors at a cash-strapped Brooklyn hospital want to sever ties with the hospital’s parent company as a way of boosting revenue and saving a maternity ward that has been slated for closure.
The medical staff at Long Island College Hospital, in the Cobble Hill neighborhood, filed a plan with the state’s Department of Health that would cut operating deficits by $20 million each year.
In July, the hospital’s parent company, Continuum Health Partners, announced plans to shutter the obstetrics department in an attempt to stem medical malpractice costs and avoid bankruptcy.
The decision was part of a reorganization plan that also included selling valuable real estate and reducing the number of beds. LICH has accrued $170 million in debt, with the obstetrics department accounting for 33% of the hospital’s losses each year.
The proposal submitted by the doctors calls for appointing a new board of directors and improving the hospital’s billing and collections operations. The doctors projected their plan could boost the hospital’s operating revenue to $337.6 million next year, up from $321 million this year.
Continuum officials urged the doctors to work with them toward a “financially realistic” plan yesterday. “We are confident that the restructuring plan we have put forward to the Department of Health is the best course of action,” hospital officials said in a statement.
