Ensuring quality public healthcare with ‘One New York’

In late April, Mayor de Blasio released a comprehensive report titled “One New York: Health Care for Our Neighborhoods.” In it, the City commits $2 billion to transition New York City’s Health + Hospitals public healthcare system to one that is centered on community healthcare.

A week before the report’s release, Anne Bové, RN and President of NYSNA’s NYC H+H Executive Council spoke out with Save Our Safety Net Coalition (SOS-C) partners Public Advocate Letitia James, AFSCME DC 37, and Doctors Council, SEIU. “We will be watching to ensure transparency and community input into the process, and the primacy of our patients’ interests in any system restructuring,” said Ms. Bové.

The plan picks up on many of the initiatives included in the Vision 2020 plan released last year by NYC H+H President and CEO Dr. Ram Raju, including aiming to double the enrollment in MetroPlus from half a million to one million people. It identifies four primary goals for the public system’s long-term success: stabilize funding to the system, expand community-based healthcare, improve efficiency and remodel outdated systems.

“By providing significant new investments to support our essential public healthcare system, the mayor’s One New York plan will ensure we don’t have the tale of two cities when it comes to quality healthcare,” said Dr. Raju.

The City held public meetings on the One New York plan May 11 and May 18, where NYSNA members told officials that for the public healthcare system to thrive, it must secure fairer funding from the state and federal governments and that NYC H+H must do a better job of spreading the word on its excellent patient safety record.