North General Hospital


North General Hospital was an American private, not-for-profit, voluntary teaching hospital located in New York City in the East Harlem section of Manhattan at Marcus Garvey Park. It was founded in 1979 to replace, as tenant, the Hospital for Joint Diseases, which vacated its East Harlem facility and moved that same year downtown to East 17th street at Stuyvesant Square. NGH was the only minority-run, voluntary teaching hospital in the State of New York. NGH was also the only private hospital in Harlem. After 31 years, North General Hospital closed in 2010 under financial duress of bankruptcy.

History

The New York City government had endured a severe fiscal crisis in 1975. Two years later, in 1977, the Hospital for Joint Diseases — which had occupied the East Harlem location on Madison Avenue, between 123rd and 124th streets, since 1905 — began construction on a new building, downtown, East 17th street at Second Avenue, across from Stuyvesant Square. In 1979, HJD moved there. The move was a loss for the Harlem community.
Leading up to the move, advocacy groups waged a campaign to keep a hospital at the Madison Avenue location. Randolph Guggenheimer, the hospital's only trustee at the time, and Eugene Louis McCabe spearheaded an effort to insure that hospital services would continue in the old building, which was renamed North General Hospital. On January 28, 1977, a New York charter was made, forming the corporation of Joint Diseases North General Hospital.

Economic backdrop

became Mayor of New York on January 1, 1978, and soon after taking office, began working on the City budget, which was still an ominous concern in the wake of the fiscal crisis that nearly bankrupted the city in 1975. Koch, in short order, imposed an additional 10% reduction in funding for municipal hospitals and slated Metropolitan Hospital and Sydenham Hospital for closure. Sydenham closed in the Spring of 1980 despite wide criticism that Harlem's medical needs were being neglected.
NGH's economic impact on Harlem had been cited as significant. Journal of Health and Human Resources Administration published in 1988 that North General Hospital was the largest private employer in Harlem. Over 70 percent of its workforce lived in Harlem.

1979 – Joint Diseases North General Hospital is founded

In 1979, after HJD moved downtown, the Joint Diseases North General Hospital became the new occupant in Harlem. The challenge for NGH, for its entire existence, was laden with fiscal stress, partly owed to a need for capital expenditures to restore and upgrade an aged, decaying building – a facility that NGH did not own in the beginning. NGH also weathered fiscal stress from treating significantly higher percentage of patients who were either uninsured or low income or both.

1987

On October 27, 1987, Joint Diseases North General Hospital shortened its name to "North General Hospital." By then, Governor Mario Cuomo had approved a state grant of $118 million toward the North General hospital construction. That year, the hospital was operating on a $42 million budget with 1,900 employees – 70 percent living in Harlem.

1991 – new building, new location

On December 12, 1991, North General Hospital moved into a newly built, modern facility at 1879 Madison Avenue, between 120th and 121st Streets, two blocks south of its old address.

Signs of systemic financial duress

By 2004, private hospitals in New York City were in arrears by more than $100 million in payments to employee benefit and pension funds, double the amount of 2003. Wall Street debt analysts rated hospitals of New York State the weakest in the nation and stated that the situation was worsening. Eight accounted for two-thirds of the debt: Brookdale in Brooklyn, Jamaica and Parkway Hospitals in Queens, Saint Vincent's and Beth Israel Medical Center, each with several locations in multiple boroughs and headquartered in Manhattan, North General Hospital, Cabrini Medical Center, both in Manhattan, and Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center in the Bronx.

2010 – closing

At May 31, 2010, North General Hospital had a debt of $293 million. Barely two months after the closing of Saint Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village, North General Hospital – which, according to the New York Times, had become a symbol of New York City's political and philanthropic commitment to Harlem – announced on June 28, 2010, that it would close four days later – on July 2, 2010. On that same day – July 2, 2010 – North General Hospital filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and actually closed on July 9, 2010. Effective June 30, 2011, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved a Chapter 11 Plan of Liquidation for North General Hospital and its affiliated debtors. Under the Plan, a Liquidation Trustee was appointed and the assets of North General Hospital were sold and/or transferred back to the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. Rev. Calvin O. Butts III had been Chairman of the Board at the time.

Post-closing analysis

With respect to the loss of emergency rooms in New York City, the New York Times, in 2011, pointed out that the city lost three hospital emergency rooms in 2008, two in 2009, and two in 2010 – Saint Vincent's and North General. Saint Vincent's had handled more than 60,000 emergency visits a year, while North General's ER had recorded 36,000 annual visits. Peninsula Hospital in Far Rockaway, Queens closed in 2012.

New facility and hospital provider at 1879 Madison Avenue

Sometime between 2010 and 2012, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation took over the former site of North General Hospital – at 1879 Madison Avenue, between 121st and 122nd streets. In 2012, the facility was renamed the "Henry J. Carter Specialty Hospital and Nursing Facility," in honor of Hank Carter, the Founder and CEO of Wheelchair Charities, Inc. A new building for the Carter Center was completed on the site around 2016.

Residential co-ops at the old location at 1919 Madison

Maple Plaza, an eight-story, 155-unit residential co-op was built at 1919 Madison Avenue in the 1990s when North General Hospital moved into its new quarters two blocks south. Maple Plaza was developed in the 1990s under a plan by the city and North General Hospital to revive the area around the hospital, which, at the time was blighted. Maple Court, another similar project in the area with 135 units, was completed before Maple Plaza.

Selected NGH programs

The Helene Fuld College of Nursing was founded in 1945 by the predecessor of North General Hospital, the Hospital for Joint Diseases. The nursing college, then a school, was named after Helene Fuld in 1955 after it received a grant from the Helene Fuld Health Foundation – a foundation established by Leonhard Felix Fuld, LLM, PhD, a benefactor of North General Hospital, in honor of his mother, Helene Fuld ''.

Records repository

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Selected personnel

Physicians

President and CEO

The stretch of Madison Avenue that runs in front of both former locations, from 118th to 124th streets – adjacent to Marcus Garvey Park – is named Eugene McCabe Way, in honor of Eugene Louis McCabe, President, CEO, and co-founder of North General Hospital. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani signed a bill dedicating it in McCabe's name about a year after his death.
In 2001, New York City Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern renamed an athletic field in the area "Eugene McCabe Field." The field is adjacent to P.S. 79, and bounded by Park Avenue, East 120th Street and East 121st Street. In October 2001, a large scale renovation of the field, costing $1.887 million, was completed. It features a new athletic field with synthetic turf and a backstops for soccer and softball.

Notable patients

Elaine W. v. Joint Diseases North General Hospital, Inc., 1993
In 1989, three pregnant, drug-addicted women filed a class action suit against Joint Diseases North General Hospital, claiming that the hospital's policy of excluding all pregnant women from its drug detoxification program violated state human rights laws against sexual discrimination in reproductive health care. The hospital responded, arguing that its broad exclusion was medically justified, primarily because the hospital had neither the obstetricians, nor the equipment, nor the license needed to provide prenatal care.
The New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, ruled that the policy did discriminate against pregnant women by treating them differently from others solely because they are pregnant. However, the court also ruled that the policy would be legally valid in situations where the hospital proved, after a trial, that no pregnant woman could be treated safely in its drug detoxification program or the hospital could not determine "within a reasonable medical certainty" which women could be treated safely. The court placed the burden of proof on the hospital. And, in proving it, the hospital had to adequately demonstrate that all prospective patients who were pregnant would face undue risk from a lack of on-site obstetrical services.

Publications