North General Hospital in Harlem plans to file for bankruptcy protection, further stretching the city's hospital system, which has been battered by budget cuts and staffing reductions, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Our New York City medical malpractice attorneys continue to report hospital closings and staffing cuts in the city, which is impacting the availability of care for many residents and can increase the risk of medical error or hospital negligence in facilities that are overworked and understaffed.
In June, we reported that Harlem Hospital Center was under fire for hundreds of echocardiograms that were never read by a physician -- some familiar with the investigation told the Times that more than 200 of the patients have since died. Doctor's at the hospital cited short staffing as a primary reason why technicians were reading test results meant to be reviewed by trained physicians. And in May we reported another 500 planned layoffs at city hospitals, bringing the total cuts to 2,400.
North General Hospital's planned bankruptcy comes after a long battle with debt at the 31-year-old facility. The hospital planned to cease admitting patients last week, shut down various departments and layoff more than 1,000 employees. The 190-bed facility owes $117 million in state bonds issued in 1989 and is delinquent on $39 million in debt, the Times reported.
It is the second acute care facility to close in New York City in recent months. St. Vincent's Hospital closed in April and filed for bankruptcy.
State officials sought to cast the facility's future in a brighter light. Gov. David Patterson's office announce that the Institute for Family Health, a large health clinic, will lease space at the facility while Health and Hospital Corp, which operates the city's public hospitals, said a 200 bed long-term acute-care facility will be relocated there in about 18 months. That facility is currently operating on Roosevelt Island.
There are also plans to build a new nursing home on the facility's parking lot.
