Peninsula patients transferred or discharged
Far Rockaway hospital seeks remedy to state order
Peninsula Hospital Center officials said that all the patients that were required to be transferred in its 173-bed facility were taken to other hospitals or discharged.
The State Department of Health ordered Peninsula to stop admitting patients and no surgeries can be performed for 30 days due to safety concerns.
During what was called a routine inspection, three units of expired plasma were found in the hospital's clinical laboratory blood-bank freezer.
The failed inspection resulted in State Health Commissioner Nirav R. Shah issuing the order on Feb. 23. The order suspended the laboratory's operating permit.
Some of the transferred patients were taken to other hospitals are ones in the North Shore/Long Island Jewish System that Peninsula is associated with.
"The hospital is continuing to seek a solution to its clinical laboratory services and hopes to have a permanent resolution satisfactory to the New York State Department of Health very quickly," said hospital spokeswoman Liz Sulik.
Following the order last Thursday, Peninsula issued this statement to the media.
“Late [Thursday], following an inspection of the Hospital Center’s clinical laboratory, by the New York State Department of Health, Peninsula Hospital Center was notified that its clinical laboratory services failed to meet acceptable standards. Accordingly, the hospital is fully complying with DOH Commissioner Shah’s directive and has stopped admitting new patients, has cancelled all surgeries and procedures, has and will continue to suspend any activities that depend on clinical laboratory services."
The statement continued, "Additionally, the Hospital Center’s Emergency Department is on diversion. The hospital has also developed a plan to transfer current inpatients to alternate facilities. As the hospital complies with the DOH’s directive, it is expeditiously developing a plan to remedy the laboratory deficiencies and hopes to restore full services as soon as possible.”
Peninsula is currently in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings.Last July, Medisys Health Systems, which then owned Peninsula began shutting down the 104-year-old hospital.
After several weeks of negotiation Brooklyn-based Revival Home Health Care LLC took possession of the hospital in September and since then has been working on a reorganization plan as the hospital negotiates with creditors to reduce a $60 million debt.
Revival Funding Co. LLC, an affiliate of Revival Home Health Care, acting as a debtor-in-possession lender called has lent the hospital $3 million for improvements in its operations and equipment.
Just last week, the hospital announced it had worked out an agreement with its unsecured creditors and was on a path to emerge from bankruptcy in May.
