The merger between Brooklyn's Maimonides Health and NYC Health + Hospitals is scheduled to close on April 1, and one of the first changes patients will likely see is a change to the maternity ward.
While testifying at a City Council subcommittee meeting on Monday, Mitchell Katz, president and chief executive officer of NYC Health + Hospitals said Maimonides should benefit from being part of the city's public health system. Once the merger closes, it can access over $2 billion in capital funds from the state that will help improve health records technology, the maternity ward and other hospital departments that serves a large Orthodox Jewish population.
The merger is not affected by a lawsuit that was filed last year that looked to block the merger, which was seeking to preserve the culture of the hospital, Katz said.
"We are not trying to create a cookie-cutter set of hospitals," Katz said. "We are committed to the preservation of Maimonides' historic cultural identity and cultural practices and will ensure that these values are central as we come together."
About $500 million will be used for capital improvements, while $1.5 billion will be used for operational costs, Katz said. As for the maternity ward that is currently "too cramped and lacks privacy," Katz said it needs an overhaul as there are 6,000 births at Maimonides every year, which far exceeds the 1,000 to 2,000 annual births that other NYC H+ H hospitals see.
"And the women deserve a nice ward, not the ward they're currently in," he said.
Brooklyn Council Member Mercedes Narcisse, chair of the Committee on Hospitals, said many of her constituents were nervous about the merger, especially employees who are already retired or approaching retirement as they fear their benefits will be affected.
Katz said NYC H + H will not change retirement benefits, will honor existing union pathways, and will uphold seniority and grievance procedures. Maimonides employees will not become city employees, so all of the unionized staff will remain employees of an existing Maimonides corporation, he added.
"But overwhelmingly, people will remain in their same jobs, same union agreements where we, of course, will respect all union contracts and union rules as they exist," he said.
Katz also said he does not want to change things that are working at Maimonides, which include specialty care, and overall staffing, including nurses and doctors.
"So for us, what isn't working? They need financial stability. They need a modern electronic health record. Really, those are the two big things they need. That's what we want to focus on," he said. "And so we've tried to create an organization that leaves as much of everything else alone because there's not a problem. If in future years, you know, people have other ideas, we can look at those."
Katz said he thinks that more residents of Sunset Park may start using the hospital after it becomes part of the public health system. The Bay Ridge and Midwood hospital locations will remain open after the merger, he added.
