NYC Health + Hospitals
Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Public Meeting – Bronx
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
Report by Dr. Mitchell Katz, President and CEO
Good evening, my name is Dr. Mitch Katz and I’m the President and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals. This is my seventh year here at the health system, and I continue to be proud and honored to lead this institution. I don’t do this alone, of course. There are some 9,000 nurses, 4,000 providers, social workers, environmental service workers, and thousands of other staff who ensure that New Yorkers received the high-quality care they deserve.
Some of those folks are in the room today. I want to thank our Board Members who are here, the staff who have spent long hours organizing these meetings, and the team here tonight who will ensure that your words are captured for all our leadership to hear.
I want to thank those of you in the audience and speaking this evening. Your presence here demonstrates how much you care about NYC Health + Hospitals, the quality of health care in our neighborhoods, and the community both inside and outside of our facilities. I appreciate your time and look forward to hearing what you have to say.
Before we begin though, I do want to highlight some of our achievements from this past year. Our goal has always been to expand access to care for more New Yorkers regardless of their ability to pay or immigration status, offer the highest quality of care, and advance our values of equity, diversity and inclusion.
Here are just a few highlights of the amazing achievements from the last year.
- We opened a new hospital. The Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital on the campus of South Brooklyn Health is a bright, beautiful space for our patients to receive care. The 11-story building was designed to withstand the next 500-year storm.
- Our nurses had a big year: they gained pay parity with private hospitals thanks to a new NYSNA contract.
- We remained at the forefront of the City’s response to the historic asylum seeker crisis, providing shelter, health care, casework, and social services to thousands of asylum seekers at our Arrival Center and humanitarian centers.
- Correctional Health Services opened the first-ever reentry service center on Rikers Island, a resource hub for the hundreds of people who are released from Rikers each year as well as members of the public and staff.
- The health system’s Lifestyle Medicine Program is now in every borough, including at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst.
- All of our hospitals began serving plant-based meals as the primary choice for dinner, encouraging our patients to eat tasty food that promotes better health outcomes.
- NYC Care, our program for those who cannot afford or are not eligible for health insurance, hit a milestone of 125,000 members.
- Over 500 patients found permanent housing working with our Housing for Health team this year.
- Newsweek once again ranked NYC Health + Hospitals/Seaview the #1 Nursing Home in New York State. Three of our other skilled nursing facilities ranked in the top ten, and the fifth was ranked in the top 30. Impressive for a state with over 600 nursing homes.
- We successfully advocated for $95.1 million in City, State, and federal funding for medical equipment and structural upgrades for our facilities.
- Nine new murals can be found around our facilities thanks to the Arts in Medicine department’s Community Mural Project.
- We finished converting medical units to psychiatric units after COVID and now have 1,000 psychiatric beds online.
- We broke ground on a new housing development on the NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull campus that will have 93 apartments, including 56 units of supportive housing for our patients.
- We distributed $1 million in debt relief to 27 behavioral health providers in exchange for a three-year commitment to serving our health system. We expect to continue this program and distribute to more providers this year.
- We launched telehealth medication abortion services through Virtual ExpressCare — becoming the first public health system in the nation to do so.
- We were once again recognized by the American Heart Association and American Medical Association for providing high quality care in several areas, including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, stroke, and resuscitation.
- We expanded our services for survivors of domestic violence by bringing behavioral health services to the City’s domestic violence shelter system, providing on-site services to adults and children. The initiative started in 9 shelters in 2023. We also opened two specialized mental health clinics for survivors at NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln and NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County.
- NYC Health + Hospitals surgical service expanded its DaVinci Surgical Robot program throughout the system. This brings high-quality surgical services to all our patients.
- Our Low Dose CT Lung Cancer Screening Program was initiated at 3 pilot sites. To date, 3,961 patients have been screened. The NYC Health + Hospitals screening rate is 24% of all eligible people, which higher than the national rate of 6%. From an equity lens, 23% were Black, 25% were Hispanic, 24% were White, 26% were Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander.
- The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Team launched a multi-year project with The New York City Administration for Children’s Services and Public Policy Lab to improve referral pathways so we can increase the number of NYC Health + Hospital patient families who receive community-based prevention services and reduce the number of families who are unnecessarily subjected to child abuse investigations.
BRONX NEWS AND HIGHLIGHTS
I would be remiss if I didn’t specifically highlight our Bronx facilities accomplishments. NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi and Lincoln and Gotham Health sites have contributed to our phenomenal year, too.
NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi|North Central Bronx
- At Jacobi we significantly advanced health care by acquiring the Ion Robot for assisted Bronchoscopy. This equipment not only helps to prevent delays in the diagnosis of lung cancer, but it also improves accuracy leading to fewer tests. Most importantly, it enhances patient safety by reducing the need for additional procedures, thereby minimizing the risk of patient harm.
- Jacobi also received Beacon Awards for its Cardiac Catheterization Lab, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and Cardiac Critical Care Unit. The Beacon Award for Excellence is a significant milestone recognizing a unit’s caregivers who successfully improve patient outcomes and align practices with the awarding organization’s standards.
- The Cardiac Catheter Lab achieved a unique status, being one of the three hospitals in New York State to be awarded Beacon gold.
- Coronary Care Unit – One of four hospitals in New York State to receive Beacon silver designation.
- NICU – One of three hospitals in New York State to receive a Beacon silver designation.
- North Central Bronx received a Mammography Imaging Accreditation from the American College of Radiology. This accreditation is a testament to our commitment to the latest quality standards and patient safety measures, ensuring we continue providing our community with the highest healthcare quality.
- The hospital also installed a Tomosynthesis 3D Mammography machine, bringing the most up-to-date technology to the women in the Bronx communities it serves.
- North Central Bronx Campus completed the installation of a new 128 Slice GE Cat Scanner, bringing the most up-to-date technology to the Bronx communities we serve.
And at NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln:
- We were awarded Bronze Certification for Excellence in Person-Centered Care from Planetree International.
- The hospital installed a DaVinci robot, which allows surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures. Patients benefit with less postoperative pain, smaller incisions and quicker recovery. We have successfully treated hundreds of patients, and we installed a second robot in January.
- We’re fortunate to have elected officials who care about our health system and support us every day:
- Congressman Ritchie Torres gave us $3.2M in community project funding towards new ICU beds.
- Council Member Salamanca awards approximately $15M for equipment upgrades and new sterilization equipment.
- The hospital’s MICU II received the Silver Level Beacon Award for excellence.
- We launched a new Lifestyle Medicine Program here at Lincoln Hospital. There is now one of these programs in every borough.
- We opened a new Pediatric Dental Practice.
- Additionally, we installed new dermatology equipment, which will allow for the earlier diagnoses of certain skin conditions.
- We are moving the Lincoln Recovery Center to the main hospital.
- And finally, the hospital has been working on a number of beautification and expansion projects.
And finally, our NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health sites have also seen improvements and upgrades for patients:
- Last week a ribbon cutting was held for a new 3D mammography machine and bone-density DEXA scanner recently installed at Gotham Health, Morrisania.
- A new bone-density DEXA scanner was also installed at Gotham Health, Belvis.
- Both new pieces of radiology equipment will provide screenings to patients in the Bronx and help our sites provide high quality, affordable care to everyone regardless of ability to pay or immigration status.
It takes all of us to make NYC Health + Hospitals succeed. And we could not do it without all of you – our patients and patient advocates, community-based organizations, elected officials, and other members of the communities we serve. Thank you for being here tonight and for your support of our essential public health care system.
Now let’s proceed to the main purpose of tonight’s meeting – to hear from you, members of our community. Your input is so important to the future success of NYC Health + Hospitals. We are ready to listen.
I will now turn to our General Counsel Andy Cohen to outline the proceeding for tonight’s meeting.