Closure of Peninsula Hospital feared

Battling diabetes, heart ailments and blood clots in his legs, John Middleton finds himself at Peninsula Hospital Center at least twice a month.

"Peninsula keeps me alive for real," said Middleton, 61, a patient of the 100-year-old Far Rockaway institution for three decades.

Count Middleton among the many patients concerned that Peninsula will close. Due to financial troubles, Peninsula is scheduled to be shut down as early as Sept. 1, according to hospital and elected officials.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," Middleton said. "The nurses know me. I know them, and they don't forget anything about my treatments. They are always on the ball."

About 750 Peninsula employees will lose their jobs if the state Department of Health approves the hospital's closure plan, which was filed by Medisys, a management company that took over the hospital two years ago. The state Health Department says it's reviewing the paperwork, filed July 27. The department has 40 to 90 days to review the plan, a spokesman said.

"This is a community hospital where both employees and patients have been together for generations," said registered nurse Mary Burke, 51, who started working as a nursing student there in 1979. "It's all very sad when local officials say they understand the human factor, but then say there is no money to keep the hospital open."

Peninsula, whose patients are mostly Medicaid and Medicare recipients, admits about 5,500 patients a year, and treats about 29,000 people in its emergency room annually, said Ole W. Pedersen, Medisys vice president of emergency medicine and public affairs.

Pedersen said Medisys had no choice but to file closure papers "due to financial constraints and difficulties." He said the hospital was already struggling when Medisys took it over. He said it attempted to upgrade the hospital's billing system with new electronic record keeping, but to no avail in helping it stay afloat. A nursing home at the hospital will remain open, Pedersen said.

"The vendor debt is approximately $13 million for the hospital," Pedersen said, adding it also owes money to Union Local 1199, "which is still being reconciled."

Leah Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Local 1199, said Medisys owes it $20 million when Medisys dipped into the union's Workers Benefit Fund to pay for employee health insurance.

Queens state Sen. Malcolm Smith said Peninsula's debt is making it difficult to find another hospital to take it over. He said he is even discussing a takeover plan with "a consortium of doctors."

The closest hospital is St. John's Episcopal Hospital, about 2 miles away.

St. John's says on its website that it is cooperating with Peninsula and Local 1199 as it hires more staff, and the hospital is working with the Health Department "to obtain approvals for changes to our facilities" to accommodate more patients.

City Councilman James Sanders, whose district has experienced a population uptick of 120,000, said he is concerned about the effect the Peninsula closure would have on the community.

"Peninsula services the densest part of the Rockaways, and the poorest section of the Rockaways," he said. "The loss of Peninsula would be catastrophic."