QUESTION
What are the factors impacting hospital occupancy rates, and how does renovation cost affect this?
0:59:08
·
4 min
Mitch Katz outlines various factors influencing hospital occupancy rates, including physical space limitations, the cost of renovations, and staffing challenges.
- Physical space constraints at hospitals like Queen's Hospital and Elmhurst limit the ability to expand or open new wards.
- Renovating four-bed rooms at Metropolitan to meet modern standards, including private bathrooms and necessary medical gases, is costly.
- Hospitals are not staffed based on their licensed bed capacity but on actual beds used, such as Metropolitan being staffed for 55 beds despite having more licensed beds.
- The occupancy rates of certain hospitals, like Kings and Bellevue, have increased due to hospital closures or downsizing in their areas, leading to overcapacity compared to pre-COVID census.
Lynn Schulman
0:59:08
So one of H and H terms and conditions reviews bed utilization in all 11 H and H facilities.
0:59:14
The bed utilization rate ranges between 55 85%.
0:59:19
Metropolitan so there's the low and the high.
0:59:22
So the Metropolitan Hospital is 55.2% occupancy.
0:59:25
Holland Hospital has 57.5 percent occupancy.
0:59:28
What factors can affect the hospital's low occupancy rate?
Mitch Katz
0:59:32
Right.
0:59:33
So it's a good good discussion for all of us to have because there's so many misconceptions.
0:59:38
So let let's talk about Metropolitan just for a minute since you raised it.
0:59:42
Very valuable resource for the community in Spanish Harlem, very well loved institution.
0:59:50
Lots of four bed rooms that are really not ideal for infection control, adequate privacy, but we don't take them off the license.
1:00:02
Because in times like COVID, you never quite know when you might need to use a space that you haven't previously used.
1:00:11
So to me, what matters most in a hospital is the combination of physical space and staffing.
1:00:19
So in your area, Queen's Hospital and Elmhurst are landlocked.
1:00:25
Like, I have no I can't open another ward, and I their place.
1:00:28
I just don't have any physical space.
1:00:31
Metropolitan, I have physical space, but it's not cheap to renovate 4 bedroom rooms into appropriate modern rooms.
1:00:41
And it's not just the the the the fact that they're 4 bedrooms, there are a variety of things.
1:00:48
Bathrooms in people do not expect to go to bathroom in the hall anymore.
1:00:54
Right?
1:00:54
Fortunately, we've stopped that.
1:00:56
Although, you know, again, just so everybody understands.
1:00:59
And so we opened the Ruth Beta Ginsburg Hospital, South Brooklyn, then Kony Island had a ward with a bathroom in the hall.
1:01:08
I and that's how it used to be.
1:01:10
But none of us think that's a good standard anymore.
1:01:13
So so we have rooms that don't have bathrooms.
1:01:16
We have rooms that don't have all the gases.
1:01:19
So for for quick speed, if somebody gets sick, you wanna be able to immediately do, you know, oxygen or other necessary gases.
1:01:29
And and it is very expensive to renovate an existing hospital while you're using it.
1:01:38
So the the the our licensed beds are not always a very good indicator.
1:01:44
We don't staff Metropolitan for its licensed beds.
1:01:49
We staff it for its 55 beds, and then we look for opportunities to use it.
1:01:55
So overall, the hospitals in our system, in the Queen's to to hospitals, as I said, but there is no more physical space.
1:02:05
The hospitals that are most crowded in terms of over their historic census or kings Mhmm.
1:02:15
And Bellevue, where council member Rivera was born.
1:02:23
The and we think that that's related to recent hospital closures or diminishments.
1:02:32
So Kingsborough closed in Brooklyn, and also university hospital has not has been diminished somewhat because of the physical plant in the case of Bellevue, Beth Israel has been diminished because of physical plant issues.
1:02:48
Those two hospitals are substantially over their pre COVID census.
1:02:53
Medis is at their pre COVID census.
1:02:56
Jacoby is a little bit over their pre COVID census.
1:03:01
Our other hospitals, Harlem, Woodhall, South Brooklyn are pretty much at their pre COVID census now.