North Central Bronx Hospital (NCBH) will “absolutely” stay open for the foreseeable future, New York Health + Hospital President Dr. Mitchell Katz said following longstanding rumors that the Norwood hospital will eventually close. In fact, Katz says, services will expand.

“If it’s going to be closed, it should be closed. If it’s going to be open, it should be open,” Katz, appearing at a “Newsmakers Q&A” at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism Sept. 27, said. “So now I’ve looked at it and we’re going to expand services to the North Central Bronx”

New York City Health + Hospitals, which includes NCBH among its three city-funded hospitals in the network, has not yet determined which areas of service will be introduced or expanded upon at North Central Bronx Hospital, press secretary Robert de Luna said.

“I didn’t really understand the dynamic and a group of providers told me that NCB has been threatened with closure since it opened,” Katz said with a laugh “It’s a community venue. We’re absolutely not closing it.”

Katz would only consider closing one of the 11 public hospitals in New York City if a hospital dipped below 100 patients a day or stopped meeting the needs of their communities. According to Katz, the smallest public hospital in the city, Metropolitan Hospital in Harlem “on most days,” has at least 160 patients. In general, Katz said there will be no hospital closures or decreases in services anytime soon.

“I’m not closing any hospitals, I’m not decreasing services, I’m growing services,” Katz said. “If the city continues to give me enough time to catch up [on reducing the NYC Health + Hospitals’ $1 billion deficit] … I think we can pull it off.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio nominated Katz last September after he turned Los Angeles Department of Health Services’ $250 million budget deficit into a $650 million surplus between 2011 and 2017. Katz began leading the New York system on Jan. 8, 2018. In New York, Katz is attempting to replicate his efforts in Los Angeles, reducing administrative costs and implementing proper billing practices to the tune of $150 million in deficit reduction since he first took office.

“In order for us to be able to take care of people who don’t have insurance, I also need to take care of people who do have insurance,” Katz said. According to Katz, the NYC Health + Hospitals was not charging insured patients before he showed up, giving private insurance companies a “break” to the detriment of the department’s finances.

During the discussion, Katz discussed topics ranging from the role of NYC Health + Hospitals in combating the opioid crisis, the department’s lawsuit against United Healthcare over $40 million in unpaid claims, and the relationship between public hospitals and undocumented immigrants.

“We, as [NYC] Health and Hospitals are prepared to do anything within our power to protect the rights of immigrants,” Katz said. He added that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have not entered New York City public hospitals at this point. “I would certainly, personally be prepared to burn records before I give anybody up immigration records.”

Katz lamented the failures of the system to adequately provide for mothers, specifically women of color. A New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene study found black women were 12-times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy related causes, up from seven-times more likely during the previous four-year period.

“We should all feel bad as New Yorkers that the rates of maternal morbidity and mortality, especially in black and brown mothers, is as high as it is,” Katz said. “Health and Hospitals is really working on moving the trust of the people in the communities, to get women involved in pre-natal care.”

This year, the city announced $12.8 million will be spent over three years on data collection, implicit bias training, and a public awareness campaign in regard to maternal and infant mortality.

Prior to his position in Los Angeles, Katz served as the director for the San Francisco Department of Health for 13 years. He is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Medical School. A practicing physician, Katz said he still sees patients at Gouverneur, an elder care facility on the lower East Side of Manhattan.