Hundreds of nurses and health care workers are criticizing the state Health Department’s enforcement of New York’s safe staffing law, claiming that lagging investigations against understaffed hospitals have rendered the rule ineffective.
Unions have submitted thousands of complaints since the Health Department began enforcement of its hospital safe staffing law last year. Three labor organizations, including the New York State Nurses Association, have sponsored at least 11,000 complaints in the past six months. But those complaints have yielded little response nor enforcement, said NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, which has left nurses with little ability to hold hospitals accountable for poor working conditions.
“We are asking that the Department of Health do [its] job,” Hagans said.
Monica Pomeroy, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health, countered the union’s claims, stating that the agency has taken a “rigorous approach” to implementing safe staffing law. The agency has investigated 409 complaints related to the staffing law and issued 35 citations to hospitals that have violated the rule, she said.
Hagans said that she’d like to see more investigations from the agency, as well as more transparency into how it plans to ensure hospitals improve staffing levels after violating ratios.
Seven nurses' unions held a rally in Albany on Monday to pressure the Health Department to ramp up its enforcement of a safe staffing law passed in 2021. State lawmakers including health committee chairs Sen. Gustavo Rivera and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin joined the unions to urge the state to ensure hospitals comply with staffing law.
The law requires hospitals to establish committees made up of nurses, health care workers and hospital administrators to devise safe staffing plans across all hospital units. The committees were in charge of coming up with ratios for all units except critical care units, which were subject to a universal rule requiring that each nurse care for no more than two patients. The staffing committees were formed in January 2022 and submitted staffing plans to state health officials in July of that year.
The unions say that lagging enforcement has led to continually short-staffed hospital units, putting patient and nurse safety at risk. Hagans said she often hears that nurses in intensive care units manage four patients at once, despite the state law mandating they care for a maximum of two.
“Our members are walking away from the bedside,” Hagans said. “They cannot continue to work in poor conditions anymore.”
In response to continued staffing challenges, nurses have submitted thousands of staffing complaints to the Health Department in hopes of holding hospitals accountable. Communications Workers of America District 1, which represents health care workers in New York, New England and New Jersey, submitted 2,500 staffing complaints against Catholic Health in Buffalo in March. Last November the union submitted 8,000 complaints against Kaleida Health in Buffalo, New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan in Greenwich Village and Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira.
The Federation of Nurses, part of the United Federation of Teachers, submitted 30 complaints against NYU Langone – Brooklyn last August, but has documented more than 2,000 violations against the facility.
Anne Goldman, a registered nurse and special representative for UFT’s nurse chapter, said that the enforcement of the staffing law is a “bureaucratic nightmare,” as current investigations have been slow and favor hospital interests.
But Dr. Erin Dupree, senior vice president and physician executive of quality and clinical initiatives at the Greater New York Hospital Association, said that hospitals are doing their best to comply with a relatively new and complicated law. While staffing plans are well thought-out and static, staffing is dynamic, she said – a fact that can result in deviations from agreed-upon plans. She also cited a workforce crisis that has made it difficult for hospitals to hire.
Hagans said that meeting staffing ratios will help hospitals improve their ability to recruit and retain nurses by improving working conditions.
Maimonides Medical Center suffered $84 million in operating losses last year, continuing long-standing financial struggles that have jeopardized the hospital’s path to sustainability, financial documents show.
The Borough Park health system was in the red by 5% in 2023 because of continued operating pressures and high expenses, according to its annual financial statement released Monday. The yearly performance follows months of low margins in the last year that dipped as low as 12% in the third quarter.
Maimonides collected $1.8 billion in operating revenue in 2023, $1.5 billion of which came from patient services revenue. But the health system incurred $1.9 billion in operating expenses, primarily driven by wage costs and a 14% increase in employee benefit payments.
The medical center’s operating performance, assets and future cash flow all “raise substantial doubt” about the hospital’s ability to continue operating as usual within the next year, management said in financial documents. Administrators said that the hospital has implemented cost cutting measures and received funding from the state Department of Health to help it stay financially viable.
Sam Miller, a spokesman for Maimonides, said that the hospital received $72 million in state aid in 2023. Some improvements in the fourth quarter and funding from Gov. Kathy Hochul has enabled the hospital to provide high-quality care and improve services, Miller said, such as the completion of Brooklyn’s only pediatric emergency department and the expansion of its emergency department over the next year and a half.
Although administrators expressed concerns about Maimonides’ future, Miller said that future state aid is likely though not guaranteed.
Maimonides has struggled to stay afloat in recent years, a situation that has only worsened since the Covid-19 pandemic. The health system has sought out ways to save money, most recently in a largely criticized attempt to evict current and former hospital workers from buildings it used to own and sold to mitigate financial stress.
But the medical center may have an out if its finances continue to suffer. Maimonides entered a strategic partnership with Northwell Health in 2015, which offered it a two-year, $125 million unsecured loan to improve its clinical outcomes and finances. The ultimate goal of the agreement is for Northwell to buy Maimonides, which is planned to become the Brooklyn hub of Northwell Health. In 2022 Maimonides extended its partnership with Northwell through June 2024.
Maimonides has three hospitals and more than 80 outpatient and community-based health centers in Brooklyn.
PharmaLogic, a Florida-based pharmaceutical manufacturing organization, has opened a new facility in Mott Haven, the company announced Tuesday.
PharmaLogic researches and produces radiopharmaceuticals, or drugs that contain radioactive forms of elements which can be used as diagnostics or therapies for cancer and other illnesses. The firm also provides contract development services to help other companies take their drug candidates from preclinical development to commercialization.
PharmaLogic purchased the 390 Concord Ave. facility for $5.5 million in 2022 from Garden City-based company Safeguard Chemical Corporation, city property records show. The company renovated the facility to be able to produce radiopharmaceuticals. Taylor Prejna, a representative for PharmaLogic, declined to share how much the company invested in the revamp.
According to Prejna, the new facility will help the company scale its radiopharmaceutical production to combat various diseases as well as research and develop new compounds that address patients’ unmet needs. She added that the company aims to increase the tri-state area’s supply of radiopharmaceuticals to widen patient access to the treatments.
The Mott Haven manufacturing site will also help cement PharmaLogic’s presence in the tri-state area, according to the company. The firm currently operates two sites in Northern and Central New Jersey that produce nuclear diagnostic products, a similar facility in Plainview and offices in Albany and Syracuse. Prejna did not address a question as to why the firm chose the Bronx as its next New York site.
PharmaLogic was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Boca Raton.
ANNUAL GALA: Robin Hood’s annual benefit gala, held at the Javits Center Monday, raised more than $68 million to combat poverty in the city, the nonprofit announced Tuesday. The event raised 7% more money than 2023’s gala and Robin Hood, which grants funding to poverty-fighting organizations and conducts research, has invested more than $3 billion since 1988. The organization is based near Union Square.
TESTING CONTRACT: The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has awarded Healthquest Esoterics, a California-based company, $6.5 million to perform Covid-19 and flu testing ahead of next winter’s potential case surge. According to the description of the work, published in the City Record Tuesday, Healthquest could test patients in congregate settings across the city, including skilled nursing facilities and substance use treatment facilities. Healthquest will send lab specimens to labs which would then report results to the agency. Healthquest also provides drug testing services and medication management.
RESEARCH FUNDING: Dr. Eddie Imada, an assistant professor of research in pathology and laboratory medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the federal Department of Defense, the school announced Tuesday. The three-year grant will allow Imada and his team to research a cellular process called alternative polyadenylation and the role it plays in prostate cancer by studying RNA sequences in healthy patients and those with tumors. The grant is part of the department’s Prostate Cancer Research Program, which aims to improve prevention, detection and care.
MEDICARE ADVANTAGE WARNING: It is growing more common for patients to be covered by Medicare Advantage plans than traditional Medicare, a trend experts warn could “sink” rural hospitals as Medicare Advantage plans often don’t provide adequate reimbursement, Modern Healthcare reports. Experts are pushing Congress and federal regulators to step in to fix the slide. Read more about city municipal retirees’ fears about Medicare Advantage here.
The head of New York City’s subways and buses may depart just two years after taking over the job.
New York City Transit President Richard Davey is expected to leave the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to return to Massachusetts and become the new chief executive of the Massachusetts Port Authority, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The people briefed on the situation said Davey has been offered and accepted the new position, pending an upcoming board vote.
Davey’s likely departure comes as the MTA prepares to launch its first-in-the-nation congestion pricing plan to toll drivers entering Manhattan’s core and amid concerns about subway safety. In recent months, Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul have sent thousands of NYPD and National Guard soldiers into the subway system to deter crime.
The MTA declined to comment and referred to Davey’s remarks at an unrelated Tuesday press conference, where he would not discuss his rumored move.
“I can’t speculate on what the board does,” Davey told reporters. "I do get calls from time to time because I got a great team that makes me look good.”
Davey did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but his departure for the Massachusetts transit scene would come as little surprise.
Before taking over at New York City Transit, Davey held multiple transit leadership roles in Massachusetts, including the position of secretary and chief executive of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation from 2011 to 2014.
Jennifer Mehigan, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, said the agency is still deliberating.
“It is anticipated the committee will make a recommendation of finalists to the full Massport Board on Thursday,” Mehigan told Crain’s. “The vote for CEO would happen at a later date.”
Lawmakers pressed the city’s Buildings Department on Tuesday to explain how the short-staffed agency will enforce sweeping new rules taking effect in the coming months even as it struggles to keep up with some of its current duties.
Mayor Eric Adams set aside $210 million for the Buildings Department in his latest budget proposal, which was the subject of Tuesday’s City Council hearing. But the agency remains leaner than it used to be — its current headcount of 1,584 is well short of the 1,861 positions the department had been allocated last year.
That alarms City Council members, since the Buildings Department will be charged with enforcing the major climate law Local Law 97 as well as the still-pending City of Yes for Economic Opportunity plan, which, if approved in its current form, would allow for new mixing of residential and commercial activities that will likely require tight regulation.
“It is extremely concerning to me that the administration has reduced DOB’s headcount as much as it has,” said Bronx Councilwoman Pierina Sanchez during Tuesday’s hearing.
The short-staffing has already impacted services: The wait time for construction inspections grew from 1.2 to 3 days during the first four months of the current fiscal year, and the time it took to respond to non-emergency complaints increased from 10.5 to 12.5 days.
Buildings Commissioner James Oddo insisted his agency is in good shape, although he repeatedly declined to say whether he has asked the mayor for more resources. The time it takes to review new building applications has decreased to an average of six days, and top-priority complaints about unsafe buildings are responded to within hours, he noted. A recent department study found DOB conducted a record 370,000 inspections during 2023 but issued fewer violations than in previous years, which Oddo called a sign of improving compliance by owners.
“There are some retrenchments, no doubt,” Oddo said. “But even with those retrenchments … the service levels continue to be strong.”
The department now has 525 inspectors along with 15 vacant positions, a far cry from the 711 inspector positions that DOB had budgeted for in 2022, Oddo told lawmakers.
Some help is on the way — Adams’ executive budget plan would devote $4 million to create 36 new full-time staffers at DOB to handle the extensive reports building owners must submit starting in 2025 to prove their compliance with Local Law 97. Laura Popa, DOB’s deputy commissioner of sustainability, explained that the agency currently has just three full-time staffers handling outreach for Local Law 97, which has included calling some 600 landlords who have the most work to do to reach compliance with the decarbonization policy.
“I think you need a couple more people,” responded Sanchez, who chairs the council’s Housing and Buildings committee.
As for City of Yes, Oddo told the council that his department is doing “a little bit more than a back-of-the-envelope estimation” to determine how much new staffing it would need to enforce the policies.
“It will impact the agency across the board,” Oddo said of the Economic Opportunity package, which would allow commercial uses on the upper floors of residential buildings and let “clean” manufacturers open up in regular commercial districts. The package of zoning changes is now under consideration by the Council, which must vote by the end of May.
Even more strain would likely be put on the Buildings Department by the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity package, which would loosen zoning rules to permit more construction across the city and allow new flexibility for garage apartments and shared amenities. That wide-ranging plan just began its public review and could face a vote by the end of the year.
“The conversations with City Hall … are ongoing about that,” said Oddo, adding that the potential new staffing needs are not reflected in the upcoming budget for Fiscal Year 2025.
The Buildings Department had some of the highest turnover of any agency in recent months. Between July 2023 and January 2024, 175 people left the agency — a 68% increase from pre-pandemic attrition levels, according to a recent report by the state comptroller’s office.
The agency’s overall vacancy rate stood at 5% in March, down from a whopping 30% in May 2022. That’s in line with similar improvement at other city agencies, where a post-pandemic vacancy crisis has eased — although much of the improvement comes from Mayor Adams’ cost-saving decision to eliminate empty positions entirely.
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Developer Victor Sigoura's Legion Investment Group continues to inject life into an otherwise remarkably slow year for property sales.
The firm has partnered with real estate firm EJS Group to buy 5 W. 13th St. near Union Square in Greenwich Village for $57.5 million, according to property records and an announcement from Legion. The office building was home to the city's Human Resources Administration for more than 20 years.
It is now vacant, and Legion plans to develop a luxury condo tower standing between 20 and 30 stories tall on the site, according to a source familiar with the deal. However, a Legion spokeswoman said the company has not yet finalized its plans for the property.
Legion and EJS bought the office building, which stands 6 stories tall and spans 110,000 square feet, from Long Island-based real estate company Philips International. It was built in 1946 and renovated in 2004, with estimated asking rents ranging from $46 to $56 per square foot, according to commercial real estate database CoStar.
Legion burst onto Manhattan's real estate scene during Covid thanks to a popular luxury condo project at 109 E. 79th St. on the Upper East Side. And although inflation and high interest rates have led to a very sluggish sales market in the city this year, 5 W. 13th St. is just the latest of several recent purchases for the developer.
The firm bought 540 W. 21st St. near the High Line in West Chelsea about a month ago for $87.4 million, and it closed on four Gramercy Park properties along Third Avenue earlier this year for $68.3 million. Legion is working on an 11-story condo project at the Gramercy Park site, and it is also putting together an 18-story, 47-unit residential project at East 84th Street and Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side.
Other projects from EJS, based in Midtown, include a boutique luxury condo at 200 E. 75th St. on the Upper East Side and a luxury rental project at 12 Halsey St. in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Legion and EJS financed the Greenwich Village deal with a $37.5 million loan from Maxim Capital. A Walker & Dunlop team led by Aaron Appel, Keith Kurland, Jonathan Schwartz, Adam Schwartz and Sean Bastian arranged the loan.
Developer Victor Sigoura's Legion Investment Group continues to inject life into an otherwise remarkably slow year for property sales.
The firm has partnered with real estate firm EJS Group to buy 5 W. 13th St. near Union Square in Greenwich Village for $57.5 million, according to property records and an announcement from Legion. The office building was home to the city's Human Resources Administration for more than 20 years.
It is now vacant, and Legion plans to develop a luxury condo tower standing between 20 and 30 stories tall on the site, according to a source familiar with the deal. However, a Legion spokeswoman said the company has not yet finalized its plans for the property.
Legion and EJS bought the office building, which stands 6 stories tall and spans 110,000 square feet, from Long Island-based real estate company Philips International. It was built in 1946 and renovated in 2004, with estimated asking rents ranging from $46 to $56 per square foot, according to commercial real estate database CoStar.
Legion burst onto Manhattan's real estate scene during Covid thanks to a popular luxury condo project at 109 E. 79th St. on the Upper East Side. And although inflation and high interest rates have led to a very sluggish sales market in the city this year, 5 W. 13th St. is just the latest of several recent purchases for the developer.
The firm bought 540 W. 21st St. near the High Line in West Chelsea about a month ago for $87.4 million, and it closed on four Gramercy Park properties along Third Avenue earlier this year for $68.3 million. Legion is working on an 11-story condo project at the Gramercy Park site, and it is also putting together an 18-story, 47-unit residential project at East 84th Street and Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side.
Other projects from EJS, based in Midtown, include a boutique luxury condo at 200 E. 75th St. on the Upper East Side and a luxury rental project at 12 Halsey St. in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Legion and EJS financed the Greenwich Village deal with a $37.5 million loan from Maxim Capital. A Walker & Dunlop team led by Aaron Appel, Keith Kurland, Jonathan Schwartz, Adam Schwartz and Sean Bastian arranged the loan.