North Central Bronx Hospital (NCBH) will “absolutely” stay open for the foreseeable future, NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Dr. Mitchell Katz said during a “Newsmakers Q&A” roundtable discussion at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism on Sept 27. Katz said he planned on expanding services at the Norwood hospital.

“If it’s going to be closed, it should be closed. If it’s going to be open, it should be open,” Katz said. “So now I’ve looked at it and we’re going to expand services to the North Central Bronx.”

But New York City Health + Hospitals has not yet determined which areas of service will be introduced or expanded upon at NCBH, press secretary Robert de Luna added. Still, news that the hospital will remain open should quell longstanding fears that it would someday and somehow close in the near future.

“I’ve been here for many years and that rumor has always been lingering,” the hospital’s newly promoted executive director, Cristina Contreras, told the Norwood News in a telephone interview. “[Katz] has been very consistent with that message and we are very grateful. It makes a big difference.”

Contreras took over the top job at NCBH in September after spending 11 of her 24 years in the New York City public hospitals system. She previously served as NCBH’s deputy executive director and chief operating officer for a year. NCBH has a staff of 1,200 physicians and non-clinical staff.

“The clinicians made it very clear to him when [Katz] came [they were concerned about the rumors],” Contreras said. “In terms of the confidence they have now and the morale, you can see the difference.”

Katz would only consider closing any of the 11 hospitals that fall in the NYC Health + Hospitals network, if it 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 on the Upper East Side of Manhattan has at least 160 patients “on most days.” Katz said there will be no hospital closures or decreases in services anytime soon.

“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 at the roundtable discussion. “It’s a community venue. We’re absolutely not closing it.”

While discussions about expanded services are still in the preliminary stages, Contreras hinted at some areas the hospital is looking at.

“Ambulatory services is definitely one of the areas we want to expand here at North Central in collaboration also with Jacobi [Medical Center],” Contreras said. “We’re really not looking to grow the inpatient; we’re looking to grow the outpatient which is the way the industry is moving towards.”

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 city system on Jan. 8. 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 system 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 NYC Health + Hospitals plays 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 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.”

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

“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.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.