According to an announcement, the hospital officially closed at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, calling the closure “part of our ongoing transformation downtown.”
Brendan Carr, Mount Sinai’s CEO, sent out a staff-wide letter on Tuesday night announcing the move, according to amNY, which stated the hospital’s emergency room — its only operational department — would finally close for good.
“To some, the closure of a building may seem like a natural part of doing business, but I know how much this building meant to so many of you,” the letter read.
The hospital system also announced the opening of a new urgent care center two blocks from the former Beth Israel.
Mount Sinai has sought to close the 700-bed hospital since 2019, saying a lack of patients has led to the facility hemorrhaging $150 million a year, and that there was no viable way to staunch the bleeding.
Following the first year of the pandemic, the plans were temporarily shelved, but were revived in 2023.
But the move faced stiff opposition from the community, which feared that yet another downtown hospital closure could imperil health outcomes for residents in the area.
Downtown New Yorkers have seen two other major hospitals close their doors for good: Cabrini Medical Center in 2008, and St. Vincent’s in 2010.
Health policy advocate Lois Uttley said on social media that Mount Sinai was “leaving a huge swath of Lower Manhattan with no community hospital” — and called the hospital system’s suggestion that patients seek care elsewhere “unacceptable.”
It’s unclear what will happen to the building that once housed the hospital.
Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, who represents the east side of Manhattan in Albany, told NY1 that whatever replaces it needs to benefit the neighborhood, adding that “we have a lack of beds in Lower Manhattan.”
In 2023, when the hospital began diverting stroke patients to other facilities, the Democrat accused Mount Sinai of violating the law during its closure plan, claiming that the state health department never approved “a plan for closure or service reduction.”
“You’re closing a key component of the medical system in Manhattan. It will impact patient care. A stroke can’t be reversed,” Oren Barzilay, the head of the union that represents FDNY-EMS workers, said at the time.
In August, a group called the Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel Hospital filed a lawsuit against Mount Sinai, claiming that the real reason behind the closure was to claim billions in real estate value following the site’s sale.
“Once this hospital is closed,” the lawsuit read, “it will be impossible to reopen.”
An appeals court judge tossed the case in a Tuesday ruling, but the group plans to file a motion with the state’s highest court in another attempt to fight the closure, according to reports.
