New York State legislators will meet Thursday with officials of SUNY Downstate Medical Center to discuss a sustainability plan for a Brooklyn hospital that had been slated to close.
In February the medical center said it could run out of money as soon as May and announced it would be closing Long Island College Hospital, one of the center's three hospitals, to help stem losses. The center said that LICH was losing about $4 million a month.
However, on March 14 a court stopped steps to close LICH and ordered the center to not discuss its closure. The New York State legislature is requiring the center to come up with a financial sustainability plan.
In order to follow the court's order, the center had to formally withdraw the closure plan before meeting with the legislators, said center president John Williams.
Since February the center has managed to delay and reduce some expenses to buy some time, said center spokesman Bob Bellafiore.
Williams has sought possible buyers for LICH in the last few months and has found no interest. He will send out a more formal request for interest in the near future, Bellafiore said.
At the end of 2012 the center had $154 million in outstanding debt.
