NYC Health + Hospitals
Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Public Meeting – Staten Island
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Report by Dr. Mitchell Katz, President and CEO
Good evening, I am Dr. Mitchell Katz and a practicing primary care doctor and the President and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals. This is my eighth year here at the health care System. I am proud and honored to lead this institution, and be here today at New York City’s #1 nursing home, NYC Health + Hospitals/Sea View.
I do not do this alone, of course. We have thousands of employees who ensure that New Yorkers received the high-quality care they deserve. Some of those folks are in the room today.
I want to thank our Board Members who are here, the staff who organized this meeting, and the team here tonight who will ensure that your words are captured for all our leadership to hear.
I want to thank those of you in the audience and those speaking this evening. Your presence here demonstrates how much you care about New York City’s public health care system, the quality of health care in your neighborhood, and the community both inside and outside of our facilities. I appreciate your time and look forward to hearing what you have to say.
My goal has always been to expand access to care for more New Yorkers regardless of their ability to pay or immigration status, offer the highest quality of care, and advance our mission and values. This remains core to what we do every day at NYC Health + Hospitals.
Before we begin tonight’s meeting, I do want to highlight some of our achievements from this past year.
- Our nursing team has had a phenomenal year. In addition to national recognition and awards, we have hired over 3,600 new union nurses since March 2023, replacing many agency nurses.
- In 2024 we housed over 375 of our patients through our Housing for Health initiative. The initiative has now housed over 1,200 patients since launch.
- US News & World Report, included all 11 of our hospitals in its “Best Hospitals 2024–2025” list, with a special nod to NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst Hospital as a “Best Regional Hospital for Equitable Access.” Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, Newsweek ranked Sea View the #1 nursing home in New York City.
- All of our hospitals have achieved at least three honors through the American Heart Association Get with the Guidelines and Mission: Lifeline quality programs.
- We continue to be a leader in LGBTQ+ care. All 18 eligible NYC Health + Hospitals facilities earned the “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader” designation by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Healthcare Equality Index.
- Four of our hospitals — Bellevue, Elmhurst, Lincoln and Woodhull — were ranked by US News and World Report magazine as high performing for Uncomplicated Pregnancies.
- Our ground-breaking Lifestyle Medicine Program completed its expansion this past year, opening new sites at Elmhurst Hospital; Gotham Health, Vanderbilt; and Lincoln Hospital, for a total of seven sites systemwide that together can serve 4,000 patients a year.
- In 2024 we launched a comprehensive three-year blueprint to strengthen and expand our behavioral health services, funded in part by $41 million from the state.
- We continue to provide services at our asylum seeker Arrival Center, which has welcomed more than 175,000 individuals from more than 160 countries.
- Our health insurance plan, MetroPlusHealth, continues to grow its membership across the five boroughs.
- NYC Health + Hospitals’ facilities and engineering teams are working hard to reduce our carbon footprint. In 2024 we installed the first solar panels on the roof of Elmhurst Hospital. This will supplement the power that the Level 1 trauma center uses every day.
- NYC Care, our health care access program for people who are ineligible or cannot afford health insurance, celebrated its five-year anniversary with over 125,000 members enrolled in the program.
- We performed over 10,000 scans for lung cancer in the first two years of the Lung Cancer Screening program. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women.
- The health care system opened 20 new wellness rooms where staff can decompress during the workday and participate in wellness activities.
- Our Arts in Medicine program continued to beautify our hospitals and create spaces for healing and reflection. Ten new murals were installed last year at our facilities, the newest one at NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi.
- Our 250 Community Health Workers have worked with over 25,000 patients. CHWs meet regularly with patients to identify and address barriers to health and well-being, such as housing, financial, food, and legal needs, as well as helping them schedule health care appointments and coordinate transportation.
- Finally, the health care system launched a podcast called The Remedy. Episodes covered everything from the power of primary care to preparing for the next pandemic.
STATEN ISLAND NEWS & HIGHLIGHTS
I would be remiss if I did not specifically highlight our Staten Island facility’s accomplishments. NYC Health + Hospitals/Sea View and Gotham Health/Vanderbilt have contributed greatly to our extraordinary year.
NYC Health + Hospitals/Sea View
- Sea View consistently earns five-star ratings from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which designates five-star rated skilled nursing facilities among the top 10 percent of nursing homes in the country.
- U.S. News & World Report released its 2025 Best Nursing Homes in America, and Sea View received high-performing ratings in short-term rehabilitation and long-term care, a designation held by only 3% of the nation’s nursing homes.
- The long-term care facility continues to implement new strategies to improve the patient/resident experience. Patient safety and satisfaction remains a top priority and is evidence by our overall Press Ganey satisfaction score of 99.23.
- Sea View is expanding its volunteer program, strengthening its bridge to the Staten Island community and partnering with local schools, veteran organizations, older adult programs, and the Summer Youth Employment Program.
- And finally, the facility has partnered with CUNY’s College of Staten Island, allowing students to fulfill their clinical rotations for disciplines in social work and nursing, which supports a career pipeline for New Yorkers to join our public health system.
Our second facility on the Island, NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Vanderbilt, has also had an amazing year.
- This past March the site established a partnership with the Staten Island Performing Provider System (SIPPS) to enhance access to services for our patients with asthma.
- In September of last year, the site was recognized by Council Member Kamilah Hanks for its work in the community.
- Vanderbilt expanded its Substance Use and Dependency programs last year.
- It received American Heart Association recognition for Blood pressure, Diabetes, and Cholesterol control in its patients.
Truly impressive accomplishments.
Finally, I do want to address some issues that have come up previously, and I suspect will come up tonight.
As I mentioned earlier, nursing is the backbone of our work across the System and in the Staten Island. We are so pleased to have done so much nurse hiring in the last year. Still, staffing can be a challenging issue and has been in recent months.
We have engaged in spirited discussions with our partner, NYSNA, over the handling of unscheduled nurse “callouts.” Nurses and all unionized staff are subject to the same longstanding policy at NYC Health + Hospitals that provides for pre-disciplinary counseling and warning sessions after multiple unscheduled callouts, and these take place well before discipline or penalties are contemplated.
Nothing in this policy stops nurses from using their ample sick time — everyone agrees that employees should not work when sick. Still, there are strong opinions on both sides about how to ensure appropriate use of leave time, which is why, we have begun preliminary discussions with both NYSNA and DC-37 on the pre-disciplinary process related to use of sick leave. We are pleased to work together with all of our unions over the coming months, including NYSNA, to discuss and negotiate aspects of this policy.
As I have said, it takes all of us to make NYC Health + Hospitals succeed. And we could not do it without all of you – our patients and patient advocates, community-based organizations, elected officials, and other members of the communities we serve. Thank you for being here tonight and for your support of our essential public health care System.
Now let’s proceed to the main purpose of tonight’s meeting – to hear from you, members of our community. Your input is so important to the future success of NYC Health + Hospitals. We are ready to listen.
I will now turn to our Deputy General Counsel Ms. Blanche Greenfield to outline the proceeding for tonight’s meeting.