Save Maimonides, a grassroots effort led by Brooklyn community leaders and members, hosted a town hall in Boro Park on Monday night to educate and mobilize the local community on the campaign’s goals and efforts to improve its hospital. The event, held in Ateres Chaya Hall, hosted more than a thousand participants who came together to show their support and share their negative experiences at Maimonides.
“The turnout demonstrates widespread concern in the community about the hospital,” said Mendy Reiner, the Co-Chairman of Save Maimonides. “The strong showing from Boro Park residents and beyond signals a strong, urgent mandate for government officials and hospital leadership to turn Maimonides around.”
The event featured prominent community activists and leaders, including author and philanthropist David Lichtenstein, Professor Alan Dershowitz and community activists Baruch Rosinger and Zvi Gluck. They shared examples of the hospital leadership’s negligence and ways to restore the medical center’s legacy. Lichtenstein recounted how three of his friends died after going to Maimonides for routine procedures (video linked here).
The event also kicked off Save Maimonides’ petition drive to demand oversight of the hospital by state regulators. Hundreds of attendees have already signed onto the campaign. Those who were not in attendance can show their support online at https://mmcpetitions.org.
“This is an urgent community issue,” said Zvi Gluck, a local advocate and former EMT at Maimonides for years. “The hospital management is not effectively doing their job, directly causing pain and suffering to patients, their family members, and hospital staff.”
The coalition has gathered thousands of complaints from patients and their families detailing severe mistreatment, understaffing, and negligence, from elderly patients trapped in rooms with no air conditioning during a heatwave to doctors overlooking symptoms of grave concern. Save Maimo aims to have the New York State Department of Health step in to provide proper oversight and ensure hospital leadership has experience in the medical field.
“CEO Kenneth Gibbs has no background in nonprofits or health,” said Reiner. “We want to conduct a national search for an experienced leader to join the hospital. We need professionals with medical and nonprofit management experience, and the state must step in with formal oversight if we want to save the hospital.”
Bolstered by the success of Monday’s event, the campaign will soon expand its town halls to more communities impacted by the hospital’s failure to meet the needs of its patients.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BByEc8B5Q38&t=1s
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
15 Responses
if it was such a pikuach nefesh as they claim. why did it start over an hour late
FOR PIKUACH NEFESH WE SHOULD BE ON TIME.
Here are some comments I posted on their gossip collection website:
My father was a patient at Maimonides during his last illness, when he was treated for a dangerous infection. The doctors and nurses were superb. My father was given first-class care and no stone was left unturned in the quest to control the infection. Throughout, my father was treated with dignity and respect. I commend Maimonides for the excellent care provided to my father.
My wife suffered several fainting spells in succession. Hatzoloh was concerned and transported her to the Maimonides emergency ward for care. Despite the crowding of the emergency ward the staff triaged the patients professionally and assured that patients who needed immediate attention, got it. We did have a wait of a few hours but a full battery of tests was performed and the results were communicated to us transparently and patiently. As a result a course of treatment was recommended. It was subsequently endorsed by my wife’s primary care providers. We have only praise for the emergency room staff at Maimonides.
I had a serious case of COVID during the second half of the pandemic and required hospitalization, including the administration of drug treatment and oxygen. The EMTs recommended Maimonides over the Manhattan hospitals and I allowed them to transport me there, where I stayed for 9 days, and where I made a full recovery. I later compared notes with a neighbor who, at about the same time, opted for a “name brand” Manhattan hospital. There was no question that I had the better experience. Despite the crisis my vital signs were tested regularly, IV’s were never allowed to remain empty and when I needed assistance with anything it was provided promptly. Maimonides is an excellent facility and I would highly recommend it to anyone.
The comments about specific incidents, whether positive or negative, are irrelevant. If I was the mod, I would not accept them. Even a broken clock is correct twice a day. The single case says nothing about the care for the average patient. And one needs respectable statistics to predict how a situation would likely progress.
I suspect, as per my unscientific collection of data, that there are many patients who entered Maimo Hospital, and their care was substandard, perhaps worse. My visits to the ER were nightmares, with long waits until being seen by anyone. The agony I was in meant nothing. Even if a staff approached me and told me that I would be seen soon, I would have been spared suffering in complete neglect. Such instances might not even be the majority. But they are not rare, and that is reason enough to seek reorganization. A hospital needs to be completely reliable. The stories that amount to passively murdering patients are not rare exceptions, and this is worse than embarrassing. Something needs to be done. No, my specific experience is not indicative of a whole. But it should be rare enough to be newsworthy, and it is not.
So I saw the 1,500 people fressing themselves during this expensive production. No doubt this hospital is not the best. After watching all the speeches last night I have zero idea of what it is they want. Epes, something is not adding up here with this ‘grassroots’ effort. Many of us can’t put our finger on it, but there is just something off about this.
who is ‘Simcha’ the speaker is referring to?
Who paid for the evening event?
I am shocked that some commentators are skeptical about this lavishly-funded campaign and lavish event, where even after weeks of bombardment advertising, they needed to offer a luxurious fress-fest and superstar entertainment in order to make sure they’d get a decent turnout.
Couldn’t these skeptics tell, from in between the mouthfuls of free food and swinging back and forth to the entertainment, how concerned the attendees were — and that in NO WAY were they there for the food, entertainment, and social experience?
@Velvel I agree. Someone is bankrolling all this food and advertising. I definitely smell ulterior motives somewhere, at best.
No doubt a hospital full of Medicaid patients is struggling.
No doubt some things should be improved.
No doubt that any ER you will not be seen in a timely matter unless you’re life and death.
No doubt that this is showing a severe lack of HaKaros HaTov.
Where else do we have a hospital that is this accommodating to the Frum community? That understand Jewish way of life and we don’t have to explain specifics while we’re worrying about treatments.
“Ask not what your hospital can do for you – ask what you can do for your hospital”… or something like that.
MY positive experiences with my father were also not posted. Is this an halachically apporved approach on how to deal with an issue. Which Rabbonim or Poskim sanctioned a public lashon hara campaign??? Which Gedolim were in attendance and/or approves of what is going on??
It just presents like a political campaign in the secular world and not a Torahdik way of handling issues affecting the tzibur. I really hope all are doing lshaim shomayim……. if there is any negiyus I have rachmanus …..
Has anybody tried reporting these issues to the hotlines at JCAHO or CMS, or the Health Dept. because they have the power to shut down or severely limit the hospitals accreditation standings and limit their ability to be eligible for insurance reimbursements.
I don’t live near the vicinity of Maimonides and don’t use the hospital. But since there’s so much racket about this topic I’ll give my two cents. The “askunim” are barking up the wrong tree here. It is true that those that the CEO took a raise however the amount is not more than other CEO’s and yes, the amount is nuts, but it’s not more than national average. I don’t know if if the CEO is competent or not, but the main reasons for the hospital being in shambles is because Medicaid is reimbursing less and less per dollar and illegals are using the ER to get medical care they don’t pay for and the hospital is left holding the bag. The nursing sortage is because how the government dealt with health care workers needing to have the the pioson-shot, many quit working in hospitals and instead work privately or changed jobs.
I have been with my father to a so-called “prestigious” hospital in Manhattan and the wait in the ER and the service is absolutely terrible. I believe that all city hospitals nationwide look similar; they are crumbling. Unfortunately, that’s what you get with leftist, socialist governments- this is the start of a crumbling US. It is mind-boggling that askanim, perhaps different ones than the ones championing change here, but askanim nonetheless push/pushed frum voters to vote for these leftists liberal perverts and then they cry when there are repercussions.
Now is there anything to do that could help the situation, at least temporarily ( till the political situation and reality gets even worse H”y)? Perhaps there is, I am certainly not familiar with the ins of running a hospital. But we can expect more of the infrastructure and institutions to crumble, just as it happens in every social government run country.
IMO there’s no excuse for broken air-conditioning system, that shows neglect, that’s for sure, but I’m not sure how much we can blame those running the hospital for a shortage in staff and financial issues caused by the hospitable not getting reimbursed at all by the government for illegals using the ER for regular and emergency medical care and for lowering the amount of Medicaid reimbursement. I bet that the majority of Maimonides patients are illegals or Medicaid patients so there you go, at the end of the day, it’s boils down to the numbers not adding up because of perverted political policies of the leftists who are in control.
My wife’s grandmother died in a Manhattan hospital because of pure neglect when someone forgot to reattach her to oxygen. My wife’s mother passed away in a Manhattan hospital because of Corona, and I have a niece in a vegetative state also because of neglect during a procedure in another Manhattan hospital. Stop with this attack on Maimonides I personally had 3 surgeries in Maimonides most of my children were born here. I never had any issues. I don’t want to negate anyone’s personal issue with Maimonides, BUT if you think a hospital is a 5 star hotel and the nurses are your personal maid then you’re the problem not the hospital.
I don’t know what went on at this event, I was out of town. But my feeling is that most or all of the commentators trying to say a good word for Maimonides do not live in BP, or maybe are young or fortunate enough to have had much experience visiting a hospital.
A few points:
To those comparing Maimonides favorably to the city hospitals:
Hospital visits aren’t generally pleasant experiences, and yes, bad things can happen in any hospital. That’s why in my family we never leave anyone alone in any hospital for a minute. But to say that the average level of care at Maimonides is comparable to the city hospitals is ridiculous. Five minutes is all it takes to see the difference.
The commentator who pointed out that we should be grateful for how accommodating Maimonides is to the frum community:
Yes, that’s true, we should be grateful. However, keep in mind that Maimonides is in the heart of BP. A huge percentage of their patients are religious Jews, and it would be much higher but for the many BP residents who know better than to go to Maimonides. So them being accommodating to Yidden is not really going above and beyond.
To those who are blaming Maimonides’ problems on the fact that Medicaid and Medicare don’t reimburse enough:
I don’t know their finances, and it’s possible there is truth to that claim. But does having excuses mean that there isn’t a problem to fix? Even if that financial situation is entirely to blame, does that mean we should just accept it and continue to allow people to continue to be mistreated and to die due to negligence?
I forgot to mention a caveat: the things being said are about the hospital in general. But the cardiac department, and from what I’ve heard, the neurological department, are actually very decent. I’ve been to the cardiac department for a procedure for my father, and it feels like you’re in a different hospital.
That was a couple of years ago. However I’ve heard from a friend who is a nurse there that they’ve started keeping patients from all different departments together on the same floors and rooms, so I don’t know if it would be the same as I experienced.
I Chaim Weinberger was this winter hospliazed in Maimonides the service was great & Special thanks to חיים פליישער i felt like in a 5 star hotel
to the above the worst Emergency
i was also in Mount Sinai no compere to the above the worst Emergency room & service