FDNY EMS no longer sending stroke patients to Beth Israel in phase-out

FDNY-EMS ambulance crews are no longer transpꦯorting str💙oke patients to the Mt. Sinai-Beth Israel campus as hospital officials in the East Village proceed with a dramatic downsizing and closure plan by next July — which advocates claim could endanger patient care.

“Effective Sunday, December 31, 2023, Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital . . . will be on Permanent Diversion for the CCC code, LVO,”  FDNY EMS Chief Michael Fields said in a Monday directive.

LVO is code for patients with Large Vessꦕel 🔜Occlusion that include patients suffering from a potentially deadly stroke. 

Neighborhood advocates fighting to keep Mt. Sinai’s Beth Israel campus open slammed the end of services.

“It totally jeopardizes patient care,” said Arthur Schwartz, a West Village resident.

“It’s a matter of life and death. I had a heart attack in 2017 and was in Beth Israel in ten minutes. It saved my life,” said Schwartz.

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Assemblyman Harvey Epstein, who reps Mt. Sinai-Beth Israel area, accused the hospital system of violating thꦜe law.

“The state Health Department has not approved a plan for closure or service reduction,” Epstein said.

The closest hospitals are the busy Bellevue and NYU Langone a🌄bout on��e mile away to the northeast and New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan to the south near City Hall.

The union president ꦓwho represents the FDNY-EMS paramedics and emergency medical technicians said the Mt. Sinai-Beth Israel phase out and shutdown comes at an inopportune time.

“The 911 call volume in Manhattan is through the roof,” said Oren Barzilay, head of Local 2507, citing the migrant crisis.

“You’re closing a key component of the medical system in Manhattan. It will impact patient care. A stroke can’t be reversed,” Barzilay said. 

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The head of the🧔 union representing EMS officers said nearby hospitals will be hard-pressed to pick up the slack.

“There are only so many CT scan machines. You’re going to have ambulance backlogs,” said Anthony Almojeria, VP of the Uniformed Emergency Medical Services Officers Union Local 3621.

Mt. Sinai recently announced that it plans to close Beth Israel by July 12 after saying the East Village hospital was losing a staggering $150 mil𒐪lion a year.

“As of 12/31/2023 the FDNY will not be directing large vessel occlusion (LVO) patients to Mount Sinai Beth Israel (MSBI) in the 911 system. This is a proactive redirection of patients with this medical emergency to hospitals that perform the procedure onsite,” a spokesperson for Mt. Sinai-Beth Israel said.

The rep said MSBI has received about two LVO cases per month and the hospital system is working in partnership with the FDNY to ensure these patients are “treated in the best and safest manner possible.”

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 “Throughout our closure plan, MSBI will maintain specialty neurologic consultants on staff. If any patients come to MSBI with LVO, or any other stroke conditions, we will still be able to stabilize these patients and offer timely neuro surgical intervention at a Mount Sinai campus, as we do today with our affiliate primary stroke centers,” the spokesperson said, referring to its uptown medical facilities.

A state Health Department spokesperson said the Mt. Sinai-Beth Israel campus closure plan “is under review for consideration.”