Caribbean L 6 ife, January 17-23, 2020
No lay-offs at
Kingsbrook Jewish
Medical Center: Officials
By Nelson A. King
Officials at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical
Center in Brooklyn and Brooklyn
Assemblywoman Diana Richardson
have assured that no lay-offs will
take place at a hospital
in the epicenter of the
Caribbean community as
a result of Gov. Andrew
Cuomo’s announced plan
last month for a 266-unit
affordable housing development
at the hospital as
part of a $1.4 billion Vital
Brooklyn Initiative.
“The development of
housing on the campus
will not impact jobs,” Enid
Dillard, director of marketing
& public affairs at
Kingsbrook Jewish Medical
Center, told Caribbean
Life on Monday. “Underused,
Assemblywoman Diana
no longer needed buildings or
parcels on the campus will be developed
for much needed housing in the community.”
Richardson, who represents the 43rd
Assembly District in Brooklyn, had
taken strong issue with a Caribbean
Life article last week that stated in the
lead paragraph that “hundreds of workers,
including doctors and nurses, may
be thrown into the breadline when a
major hospital campus in the epicenter
of the Caribbean community in Brooklyn
is turned into affordable housing
development.”
Clearly, the article did not state specifically
that employees at Kingbrook
Jewish Medical Center will be laid off;
nor did it state that the hospital will be
closed.
Instead, the operative word, “may,”
was used in stating that employees
“may be thrown into the breadline…”
The gist of the story was based primarily
on Cuomo’s announcement.
“Cuomo said the project is to transform
Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center
North Campus into apartment buildings,
with health, wellness, employment
and support services,” the article
said.
“The development is part of the governor’s
$578 million commitment to
create 4,000 units of affordable housing
in Central Brooklyn,” it added.
“Cuomo said the Kingsbrook Estates
will offer affordable housing and a wide
array of health, wellness, employment
and support services for residents and
the broader community,” the article
continued.
On Friday, Richardson, the daughter
of Aruban and St. Martin immigrants,
in an email to Caribbean Life, also said
that no employee will be laid off.
“In fact, we are building this development
on the North End of the hospital,
and no one (including doctors
or nurses) will be affected (ie Loosing
Jobs),” she said, misspelling losing and
uppercasing jobs.
In “requesting an
opportunity for us to better
clarify our campus
redevelopment,” Dillard
forwarded to Caribbean
Life an article “recently
published in Crain’s,”
which “allowed us the
opportunity to make
clear the overall goals of
our transformation.”
The Crain’s article,
published on Dec.
11, under the headline,
“Cuomo unveils project
to convert Kingsbrook
Jewish buildings into
housing”, stated that “three buildings
on a 102,000-square-foot part of the
hospital’s campus will be demolished to
make way for the housing development,
which will be called Kingsbrook Estates.
The hospital’s Leviton Building also will
be converted into housing units.
“’It’s really addressing a dire need for
affordable and supportive housing in
central Brooklyn,’ said LaRay Brown,
CEO of the One Brooklyn Health System,
which includes Kingsbrook Jewish.
‘We’re increasingly seeing that health
care is not effective in isolation from
addressing the social determinants of
health.’
“The buildings are home to some of
the 303-bed hospital’s administrative
offices and include some patient care
areas.
“Brown said that the aging structures,
which are expensive to maintain,
would not be needed as the system
redevelops the campus as a site for
ambulatory care, inpatient rehabilitation,
and psychiatric services and postacute
care.
“A lot of the uses are administrative,
and they can be relocated and consolidated
into other spaces that will remain
on the campus,” Brown said. “None of
the buildings have significant inpatient
or outpatient services.”
“A state-commissioned study conducted
by Northwell Health in 2016
recommended Kingsbrook Jewish no
longer operate as a full-service, acutecare
hospital. This project isn’t ushering
in the implementation of that plan,
Brown said. But One Brooklyn is continuing
to pursue plans to transform
the campus into a medical village with
a freestanding emergency department
and a much smaller number of inpatient
beds, Brown said.
Richardson.