A hospital that doesn’t deliver babies? That’s a bad sign. Clearly LICH is in big financial trouble slowly selling off assets to get themselves out of the mess they’re in. Hospital representatives say that by closing their obstetrics department and selling the buildings, they’ll be able to keep bankruptcy at bay.

For those who didn’t see the article in the New York Times yesterday,
this turn of events will come as news for people who had their kids at this hospital.  In 2007, according to the New York Times, 2,700 babies were delivered there.

According to quotes in the New York Times article, LICH may be shooting itself in the foot by closing their obstetrics division.

Stanley Brezenoff, president of Continuum Health Partners, the
parent company of Long Island College Hospital, said Wednesday that the
obstetrics service was being closed and the two buildings sold in an
effort to pay off tens of millions of dollars in operating and capital
debt that might otherwise force it to declare bankruptcy.

Mr. Brezenoff said that delivering babies was the biggest money loser at the hospital, as at many hospitals,
because of low reimbursement rates and high premiums for malpractice
insurance. “Our decision to take this step is not a happy one,” he said.

While
the financial concerns reflect those surrounding obstetrics at
hospitals nationwide, some doctors said that the closing could be
shortsighted, since maternity wards often bring in patients in
surrounding communities who will return when they or their children
need medical care.

“I think it’s well understood that obstetrical
services are a portal into the hospital,” Dr. John P. Brennan, an
obstetrician who has delivered babies at Long Island College Hospital
for 19 years, said Wednesday. “In many families the women, the mom
makes the health care decisions. If she’s had a baby there, when her
husband needs a procedure 5 or 10 years later, he’ll often go to the
same hospital. So obstetrics feeds all the other services.”