Closure looms for Far Rockaway hospital

The 200-bed Peninsula Hospital Center in Far Rockaway, Queens is closing, sources tell Crain’s, and that’s just one of many outer-borough healthcare facilities facing financial difficulties. And considering St. Vincent’s recent sale, Manhattan hospitals aren’t immune to funding issues either.

The Peninsula, at 51-15 Beach Channel Drive, is believed to be closing because it owes tens of millions of dollars to the benefit fund of its main union and vendors. One thousand employees would lose their jobs.

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The formerly independent hospital joined MediSys, a non-profit organization that supports hospitals throughout the city, to alleviate financial concerns several years ago, but MediSys can no longer support the hospital. That leaves St. Johns Episcopal Hospital as the only healthcare facility servicing the distant Queens neighborhood.

Crain’s also said that Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn currently suffers from the same financial ills that have ultimately led the Peninsula to the brink of closure. [Crain’s]