Lower Manhattan residents may be getting whiplash.
Mount Sinai’s Beth Israel hospital can, once again, resume the process of shutting down after a temporary stay that was blocking the hospital’s closure was lifted by a state appeals court on Tuesday.
The ruling was made in a case brought by a community coalition that aims to keep the hospital open.
Beth Israel, whose fate has been in limbo for over a year, stopped offering inpatient care in February. But the emergency department is still operating and will remain open until the hospital shuts its doors for good, said Loren Riegelhaupt, a spokesperson for Mount Sinai.
Riegelhaupt did not share a final closure date but said in a statement the closure plan would be implemented “immediately.”
“We are working closely with the New York State Department of Health, state regulators, and other area hospitals to ensure a seamless and safe transition of care,” Riegelhaupt added.
Arthur Schwartz, a lawyer for the coalition seeking to save Beth Israel, said he plans to bring the case to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.
Mount Sinai has said it has to close Beth Israel because the hospital is losing too much money. But the coalition represented by Schwartz has successfully used the courts to stave off the hospital’s planned closure since February 2024.
The group’s latest lawsuit argued that the state Department of Health acted arbitrarily in approving Beth Israel’s closure and did not adequately assess the potential impact on local residents. The coalition questioned the state’s conclusion that patients could be absorbed by Bellevue and other area hospitals.
A state Supreme Court judge dismissed that case earlier this year, clearing the way for Beth Israel to move forward with its long-planned closure — but the hospital shutdown was stalled again when the community coalition quickly appealed and won a temporary injunction.
A panel of five appellate judges has now decided in a 4-to-1 decision not to extend that temporary injunction and to once again allow the hospital closure to proceed.
Mount Sinai is planning to open a new urgent care center on East 14th Street, two blocks from the Beth Israel campus. The urgent care “will be ready to take patients prior to the hospital’s closing,” Riegelhaupt said.
