A Hospital, If You Please
By Katie Larkin
In April 2012, after servicing the Rockaway and Broad Channel communities for 104 years, Peninsula Hospital declared bankruptcy and shut its doors for good. Since then, the only remaining facility on the peninsula, St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, has had to take up the task of providing quality care to 126,629 residents on the peninsula and counting. And the need for more healthcare options in an ever-growing neighborhood, continues to be apparent.
Currently, St. John’s is a 257-bed licensed acute care hospital with 400 physicians and more than 1,500 various personnel. While it has seen improvements over the years, such as an expanded emergency room with state-of-the-art equipment, St. John’s has become overburdened. In 2023, St. John’s had 46,253 ER visits and 89,988 ambulatory visits, as well as 9,178 “in-person” visits. This puts the average caseload at 364 patients per physician.
“I appreciate all the investments being made in St. John’s, but that hospital only has about half the beds and doctors we need to serve Rockaway’s fast-growing population. And let’s face it, elected officials have not done much to address our capacity shortage since Peninsula Hospital closed. Funding additional healthcare capacity for the entire peninsula will be a priority for me, if elected,” Paul King, president of the Belle Harbor Civic Association and congressional candidate, said.
According to the St. John’s Community Health Needs Assessment and Community Service Plan (2020-2023), “Cancer and heart disease are the leading causes of premature death (death before the age of 65) in Rockaway and Broad Channel.” The overall rate of premature death across NYC is 169.5 per 100,000, but Rockaway and Broad Channel stand at 269.3 per 100,000 premature deaths. That is 1.5 times higher than the general population of the entire city. Invasive cancers, cancer that spreads beyond the point of origin, is 6.57% higher on the peninsula than in all of NYC.
Acute-care hospitals, such as St. John’s, are designed for specialized services like ambulatory care, emergency surgeries, and intensive care units, focusing on critical medical needs. Essential for short-term care, but it falls short in addressing long-term issues like heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses that are critically higher in this area. A full-service hospital, by contrast, provides long-term care and offers a range of healthcare options.
Rockaway has also long been lacking trauma care, creating a dire situation for victims of things like drownings and shootings. Bringing a trauma facility has been at the forefront of Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers’ tenure as councilwoman of District 31 since 2021. In October 2022, Brooks-Powers launched the Far Rockaway Trauma Healthcare Access Task Force to bring together community leaders and healthcare experts to study and advocate for a trauma facility on the peninsula. Ahead of this year’s city budget discussions, the councilwoman held rallies to demand funding for a trauma facility. She recently announced that some funding was acquired in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget, toward that goal, to the tune of $25 million.
“While I acquired this funding specifically for the trauma center, it does not mean my advocacy stops there. We are constantly working with St. John’s to expand the services they are able to provide like preventative care,” remarked Brooks-Powers. “It is my hope that with all these capital investments, we are able to provide a holistic environment for residents.”
As more funding will be needed to make it a reality, the councilwoman’s advocacy efforts continue. She is planning on holding a rally with the mayor in Rockaway to bring attention to the need for increased healthcare on the peninsula. For further details on when and where this rally will take place, contact her Far Rockaway office at (718) 471-7014.
Other officials acknowledge the need for more options in Rockaway. “There is a need for increased healthcare throughout the peninsula,” echoed Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato. “St. John’s Hospital saves lives every day, however, we have lacked access to certain medical resources for far too long due to being geographically isolated. The recent announcement of funding a trauma center is welcomed news to our whole community as it will go towards adding more emergency services and medical stability for everyone in Rockaway!”
Tom Sullivan, who is running for New York State Assembly, also took note of the crisis. “Rockaway is in dire need of a full-service hospital on the peninsula. We lack an essential healthcare facility that can provide comprehensive and specialized medical care that includes nursing care, necessary medical supplies and an emergency room that can handle any kind of medical emergency or accident. Rockaway is expanding in many ways, especially its population, which makes travel time between one end of the peninsula and the other much longer than usual. Time is critical in moments of an emergency… Just ask the family of Johnathan Diller and his fellow officers.”
