A 12 months and a half in the past, SUNY Downstate’s future was deeply unsure. Its hospital was in bodily disrepair, dealing with a $100 million annual deficit, and projected to expire of money to proceed to function by the summer time of 2024. For an establishment so necessary to the group—and the place most sufferers are low-income and folks of shade—the stakes couldn’t have been greater.
At the moment, because of a historic $1 billion-plus funding secured by Governor Kathy Hochul and the devoted efforts of the Downstate Group Advisory Board, we’ve got a path ahead: A daring, community-driven proposal that may ship a contemporary, state-of-the-art hospital and guarantee continued entry to high quality, inexpensive healthcare in Central Brooklyn for generations to come back.
In the beginning, the plan ensures that Downstate will retain all of its current inpatient and outpatient providers. Each side of care, from the emergency division to affected person rooms, might be upgraded. The ER might be modernized and expanded, rising capability to serve sufferers in pressing want. Affected person rooms might be fully redone, with double-occupancy rooms transformed into single-occupancy to advertise dignity, scale back an infection dangers, and enhance well being outcomes. In a borough the place most cancers and coronary heart illness are main causes of loss of life, a brand new ambulatory surgical procedure middle may also increase Downstate’s means to ship life-saving oncology and cardiology care.
General, these adjustments will end in an expanded vary of providers, extra accessible look after the group, and a rise within the variety of sufferers we look after on daily basis.
Past the medical upgrades, the plan requires important bodily enhancements to the constructing. This consists of crucial infrastructure investments like upgrading {the electrical}, mechanical, and plumbing techniques to carry the constructing – which as lately as final week skilled flooding – into good restore and guarantee affected person and workers security.
The advisory board believes that these investments will collectively yield greater affected person quantity, together with new business payors. Nevertheless, to realize these targets, the advisory board additionally made clear that Downstate should concurrently and dramatically intensify its efforts to advance effectivity to be able to scale back unsustainable annual deficits. This consists of enhancements to management and operations, in addition to the adoption of a brand new digital well being information system which may enhance billing, productiveness, and – most significantly – affected person outcomes.
As New York and the nation face deep well being inequities, Downstate Hospital and the Downstate Well being Sciences College are extra important than ever. The hospital’s affected person inhabitants is disproportionately impacted by systemic gaps in care, from maternal mortality to continual situations that go untreated. However these challenges additionally draw a number of the world’s most devoted, community-oriented medical professionals and potential professionals to its halls. Throughout my visits to Downstate, I’ve heard considerations in regards to the ageing infrastructure, however I’ve additionally seen firsthand the willpower and expertise of the docs, nurses, and workers. Each dialog leaves me extra hopeful and deepens my perception within the significance of this inspirational plan.
This new imaginative and prescient for Downstate is the results of unprecedented group collaboration. The Downstate Group Advisory Board has led months of inclusive conversations, participating religion leaders, sufferers, healthcare professionals, elected officers, and different key voices. Their enter formed a plan that facilities the wants of Brooklynites and displays the group’s dedication to constructing a more healthy future.
And naturally, none of this is able to be attainable with out Governor Hochul’s management. At a time when many doubtlessly devastating cuts to healthcare dominate the nationwide discourse, New York is taking a special path. We’re selecting to put money into healthcare, in infrastructure, and within the individuals who make care attainable. Saving Downstate is a robust instance of that dedication.
What was as soon as a logo of pressure and uncertainty is now poised to change into a mannequin for inclusive, community-centered care. With the assist of state management and the voices of Brooklyn behind it, SUNY Downstate is constructing one thing extraordinary for at the moment’s sufferers and for the generations of New Yorkers who will depend on it sooner or later.
Dr. John B. King Jr. is the Chancellor of the State College of New York (SUNY).
