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Breakdown of $28 million funding from Mount Sinai to Bellevue Hospital
1:23:01
ยท
3 min
Dr. Mitch Katz provides a detailed breakdown of the $28 million funding that Bellevue Hospital will receive from Mount Sinai as part of the agreement for Beth Israel's closure. He explains how the money will be allocated to various improvements and services at Bellevue.
- $15 million for expanding Bellevue's Emergency Department capacity, including CPAP and ambulance bay.
- $1.5 million for purchasing a new CT scanner, with an additional $4 million for installation and construction of a radiology suite.
- $2.5 million per year allocated for respite beds to help manage patient flow and free up acute care beds.
- Dr. Katz expresses particular concern about the impact on mental health services, as Beth Israel's closure will likely increase the mental health patient load at Bellevue.
Dr. Mitch Katz
1:23:01
Right.
1:23:02
So 28,000,000 is is what the Mount Sinai agreed in order to get the state to agree to allow them to close.
1:23:12
And the 28,000,000 is 15,000,000 to expand the capacity of the Bellevue ED, including the CPAP and the ambulance bay.
1:23:24
1 and a half million for us to purchase a CT scanner because one of the things that we noted, I mean, when the state was talking to us, worked hard to try to figure out what were the the the things that most slow us from being able to figure out what whether a person needed to be admitted or discharged.
1:23:46
CT scanner, not that we don't have one, but the the volume is so great that people were waiting.
1:23:52
So another CT scanner.
1:23:56
So it's 1 and a half to purchase it and 4 and a 4,000,000 in order to install it because the installing requires construction of the radiology suite.
1:24:08
And then, and because I knew this was going to happen quickly, I asked the state, to require, that they put 2 and a half million dollars a year to respite beds.
1:24:23
You might say why respite beds when it's the hospital that's closing?
1:24:28
Because at any one time, there are people at Bellevue waiting for the next step who could go they can't go home.
1:24:35
They're not able to do their activities of daily living.
1:24:38
So I can't discharge them, but they no longer need acute care.
1:24:43
So if I could send them someplace where they would be fed and dressed and supported, then I could open up those beds without any new construction because constructing new beds is so expensive and time consuming.
1:24:59
Right?
1:25:00
I mean, it can take you three years to open up 25 new beds.
1:25:04
So so we asked them for the for money to do that.
1:25:11
I think to your question of, you know, what is what is the, you know, the need likely or where it won't surprise the members of the council that it's the mental health that I that concerns me.
1:25:26
And it's it's a sort of convoluted New York state answer.
1:25:32
So when I first asked about Beth Israel, I said, thought, do you have a mental health ward?
1:25:38
And the answer is no.
1:25:39
It's all at the Rivington.
1:25:42
So I'm like, oh, okay, good.
1:25:43
So I don't have to worry.
1:25:45
No, no, I have to worry.
1:25:47
Why?
1:25:47
Because the states, they built Rivington, would not allow them to have a CPAP, an emergency room Right.
1:25:56
Without a medical emergency room.
1:25:58
So they couldn't build Rivington.
1:26:01
In my ideal, Rivington would have been a mental health hospital with an a mental health emergency room.
1:26:08
But you can't blame them for that.
1:26:10
That's in I checked.
1:26:11
That's in state regs.
1:26:12
You can't have a a CPAP, a mental health emergency room unless you also have a medical emergency room.
1:26:20
So therefore there is none.
1:26:22
So therefore everyone who would have so that while they had no beds at Mount Sinai, they had a CPAP at Mount Sinai.
1:26:33
And so now overwhelmingly those people are likely to come to us.
1:26:38
And right, and you know that that's already been, you know, Bellevue is our busiest hospital for mental health care.
1:26:46
And that CPAP, you know, the volume is amazingly dramatic of people who are really impaired at the point.
Carlina Rivera
1:26:55
So How do you accommodate that?