By Doug Miller
In the report, the commissioners suggested that the hospital reduce its operating volume by 55 beds, or about 25 percent. By recommending cuts rather than a shutdown or merger, "The commission recognizes the value of this hospital" to the Long Beach community, said Douglas Melzer, LBMC's CEO. "This validates us and creates a partnership between the state and the hospital. I think it was a very positive statement."
It might have been far worse. The commission's recommendations, which will become law next year unless rejected by both houses of the state Legislature, called for cuts and closures all over New York state, including 100 beds at the much larger Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow and the consolidation of several Suffolk County hospitals.
The commissioners cited LBMC's debts and limited customer base as reasons for the cuts, saying the facility was more likely to thrive as a smaller hospital than by waiting for a merger with a more profitable partner that might never come.
Long Beach Medical Center is a non-profit, independent hospital operating with a budget of approximately $100 million while carrying a long-term debt load of about $28 million, according to the report. It averaged about 76 percent occupancy in 2005.
Further, while the hospital provides a valuable service to the city, the report said, residents do not support it to the extent that justifies its current size. The report stated that some 80 percent of the hospital's business involved its emergency room, and Long Beach residents chose a different state hospital 50 percent of the time.
"Long Beach should reconfigure as a smaller facility focused on emergency and ambulatory care services with a more limited number of inpatient beds and linkages to a more comprehensive partner," the commission wrote. Because so many Long Beach residents choose other, bigger hospitals for elective care, "LBMC cannot compete in the medical arms race."
Emergency rooms are frequently "loss leaders," necessary but unprofitable parts of the operation. "Something like 17 percent of the population of New York state is uninsured, and we can't turn anyone away," Melzer said. "But this report is not prescriptive."
Changes are in the works, Melzer added. The hospital will reopen its lucrative inpatient alcohol and drug rehabilitation wing - which was closed in 1995, resulting in as much as a 12 percent hit to the hospital's operating revenues - next month. Hospital officials also pointed to a new capital-restructuring grant from Gov. George Pataki of $426,000 for a dialysis unit. LBMC has also received certified stroke center status. "All of these things validate our value," said Sharon Player, LBMC's director of development.
Melzer vowed that the recommended cuts, which he said were open to negotiation, would only make the hospital more efficient. "These were unoccupied beds, paper beds," Melzer said.
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
