SUNY Won't Close Brooklyn Hospital - For Now

SUNY is withdrawing its plan to close Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn – at least for the time being.

The move comes after a legal challenge to SUNY’s decision last month to close the hospital. That was planned as a first step toward overhauling LICH's parent network, the SUNY Downstate system.

According to a SUNY press release, the university will consider new management for LICH, “including potentially a hospital operator.”

SUNY Downstate, which acquired LICH in 2011, is losing millions of dollars a month.

Community members, politicians and hospital employees complained that Downstate only added to a long history of mismanagement at LICH. But they were united in praising the decision to renegotiate its future  without “the sword of Damocles hovering above it,” according to State Sen. Daniel Squadron.

“It's still on life support,” he said. “We still have a lot of work to do to save it. But at least now we can get all the stakeholders around the table.”