PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Madeline Villalba, Medical Student and Member of Commission on the Public Health System (CPHS) on Hospital Closures
2:22:28
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142 sec
Madeline Villalba, a medical student and member of the Commission on the Public Health System, testified about the potential negative impacts of hospital closures on communities, focusing on increased ambulance wait times and reduced access to care. She emphasized the critical nature of timely medical interventions in emergencies and the disproportionate effect on Medicaid and uninsured patients.
- Highlighted that even a few minutes increase in transport time can have significant clinical consequences in life-threatening emergencies.
- Pointed out that major academic hospital networks serve a smaller percentage of Medicaid and uninsured patients, potentially overwhelming the public system if closures occur.
- Argued that hospital closures may not actually reduce healthcare costs and could potentially increase them as displaced patients seek care elsewhere.
Madeline Villalba
2:22:28
Okay.
2:22:29
Can you hear me?
2:22:30
Okay.
2:22:30
Trying to see Stitch Lumen, council member of Vera.
2:22:33
Mhmm.
2:22:34
Oh, okay.
2:22:36
Thank you.
2:22:37
And other council members, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak.
2:22:40
My name is Madelyn Villalba.
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I'm a medical student in East Harlem.
2:22:43
I spent a lot of time rotating in the health and hospital system.
2:22:47
I'm also a health equity research fellow, and I'm a member of CHS, the Commission on the Public Health System.
2:22:53
So I'm here just to share a few thoughts on the impact of what hospital closures can do to communities.
2:22:59
I think Judy will share a little bit more about of the historical arca hospital closures in New York City and what the impact has been over the years.
2:23:06
But I just want to share a few thoughts from a medical perspective and from my organizing perspective and from a health equity research perspective.
2:23:13
So I'll start speaking about ambulance wait times and access to care.
2:23:16
As of this fall, England's wait times are already at their highest in New York City since the start of the pandemic, and that includes wait times for life threatening emergencies.
2:23:25
Hospital closures can actually further lengthen transport time, and an increase of even only a few minutes is clinically significant.
2:23:32
So in life threatening medical emergencies, as you know, every minute matters, we say in medicine, time is muscle after a heart attack or time is brain after a stroke because with every minute that passes, without access to treatment, more organ function is lost.
2:23:45
And that kind of catastrophic consequences to health and to life.
2:23:49
So the assumption that patients can just go to another hospital kind of fails to recognize the many circumstances or geographic proximity really matters.
2:23:57
Also add the major academic hospital networks in New York City, sort of a much smaller percentage of Medicaid and uninsured patients in the public system.
2:24:05
So the impacts of any closures affecting Medicaid and uninsured patients will mainly be absorbed by an already overwhelmed and underfunded public system, which further impacts the quality of care at these institutions.
2:24:17
And additionally, while a hospital closure may superficially appear to reduce cost of the system, uninsured or Medicaid and underinsured folks, we'll still need quality health care, and that necessitates dedicated support and funding directed to the institutions that care for them.
2:24:31
There's ample historical data to suggest that hospital closures don't actually slow health care cost increases, and it's likely that closures ultimately actually increase cost to the system.
2:24:40
As displace patients obtain care elsewhere.
2:24:44
So thank you for the opportunity to speak.
2:24:46
I voiced my support for res the resolution at hand and pass it over to Judy.
