Mount Sinai Medical Center is going to gradually close down Beth Israel Hospital on First Avenue in downtown Manhattan, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
A spokesperson for Mount Sinai said Beth Israel will lose $150 million this year, operating at 20% of capacity, and noted that “despite massive investments and upgrades,” Beth Israel lost $1 billion in the last ten years.
Beth Israel Hospital was incorporated on May 28, 1890, by a group of 40 Orthodox Jews who each donated 25 cents to set up a medical facility dedicated to serving immigrant Jews living in the tenements of the Lower East Side. New York hospitals did not treat Jewish patients in those days.
After the year 2000, Beth Israel experienced financial hardship, like other older hospitals in the city, such as St. Vincent’s in the Village, which used to serve Catholic patients from Little Italy and closed down in 2010. That was the year Mount Sinai Medical Center adopted its downtown sister, but over the years was forced to cut down operations severely.
These Days, the downtown area is covered by hospitals that are affiliated with NY University.
