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Councilman: Montefiore patients get poor care because of ‘arrogant bureaucracy’
Montefiore Medical Center is an “entrenched, arrogant bureaucracy” that offers “substandard” emergency care to Bronx patients, a city lawmaker railed Saturday as he demanded a probe into the long wait times and overcrowding that plague the sprawling hospital network.
Montefiore — which operates three emergency rooms in the borough — routinely subjects patients to “interminable” waits, only to treat them in crowded hallways due to a chronic shortage of beds, Councilman Ritchie Torres told The Post on Saturday.
Montefiore is politically connected too, Torres said, noting its longstanding and deep ties to city and state leadership — its CEO, Dr. Steven Safyer, served on then-mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s transition team.
It’s time they are held accountable, he said.
“Why are we relegating vulnerable patients to cramped and crowded hallways, where the risk of infection is high and there’s no privacy for interviews and physical exams and toileting — and there’s constant light and noise that prevents you from sleeping?” asked Torres.
“We’re creating conditions conducive to an overall decline in patient care,” he said.
“It’s the antithesis of care.”
Montefiore’s high-volume Bronx outposts are the largest recipient of city Medicaid dollars, Torres said.
On Friday, Torres sent a letter to the city Department of Investigation urging that they “probe Montefiore’s practice of placing Medicaid recipients in crowded hallways that neglect patient care.”
Health and Hospitals Corp. CEO Dr. Mitchell Katz is about to be appointed to a seat on the city Board of Heath by Mayor de Blasio, Torres said.
When that appointment comes before the council’s rules committee, Torres will grill him on what he’ll do about Montefiore’s ER overcrowding problem, said Torres, who sits on the committee.
Torres also chairs the council’s Committee on Oversight and Investigations, and Montefiore is within his 15th Council District.
Torres was moved to action last month, he said, after a dozen Montefiore nurses reached out to him, describing the horrendous overcrowding.
At the ER on Gun Hill Road Saturday, the waiting room was packed and beds were stacked three deep in the hallways.
“So far, it’s been three hours,” sighed Priscilla Rodriguez, 28, of Bedford Park, who believed she had broken her ankle.
“This is ridiculous.”
The DOI would only say that it has received Torres’ letter. Montefiore reps did not respond to a request for comment.
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