Training doctors and serving the community

The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan considered New York’s teaching hospitals one of his state’s crown jewels. He was right, and they remain so today. These world-class facilities are staffed by exceptionally skilled doctors and nurses, train tomorrow’s physicians, conduct cutting-edge research, and deliver highly specialized clinical care to the most severely ill and injured patients. Their doors are open 24-7 to care for all New Yorkers, including the underserved. In short, they are the cornerstones of healthy communities and local economies.

We are proud to represent two of those teaching hospitals — NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Montefiore Health System — and we are grateful that Moynihan recognized and celebrated the contributions of all teaching hospitals across the Empire State.

A persons crosses a footbridge at New York Presbyterian Hospital, in New York, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021. (Richard Drew/AP)

Here are some of the ways New York’s teaching hospitals serve and improve their communities.

It is a common misperception that teaching hospitals do not care for the poor, the uninsured, and other underserved communities. In reality, they are often the primary health care providers for these populations, and regularly accept transfers of seriously ill patients who cannot be cared for in less sophisticated hospitals. In 2021, the Commonwealth Fund Task Force on Academic Health Centers found that teaching hospitals provide significantly more free care to the poor and uninsured than any other hospitals.

In fact, five private health systems — NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Montefiore Health System, Mount Sinai Health, Northwell Health, and NYU Langone Health — account for nearly 50% of all Medicaid discharges in the downstate region, according to the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA). These systems have also played an enormous role in strengthening health care access in vulnerable communities by acquiring and significantly improving numerous safety net hospitals that would have otherwise failed.

New York teaching hospitals’ advanced clinical expertise, resources, and technology enable them to provide more sophisticated care. They have greater experience treating complex conditions and tend to be early adopters of technologies that yield better outcomes for conditions that require more intensive care and specialized knowledge. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals” rankings are an annual “who’s who” of New York teaching hospitals.

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Along with their affiliated medical schools, teaching hospitals are where medical breakthroughs occur and tomorrow’s cures are found. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), more than half of all research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is conducted at medical schools and teaching hospitals. And for every $1 dollar of NIH support received, an additional 50 cents of costs are incurred, according to AAMC. This means that our teaching hospitals and their medical schools are contributing $500 million to support these groundbreaking research efforts. Finally, teaching hospitals often support and develop population health innovations that especially benefit vulnerable communities.

Teaching hospitals are essential to the physician education and training process, and New York is the undisputed physician training capital of the world. New York’s teaching hospitals train 18,000 physicians every year — roughly 14% of all physicians trained in the U.S., according to a GNYHA analysis of Medicare cost reports. This is important for everyone — CNN recently reported on the growing concern in Washington about the nation’s ongoing shortage of health care workers, specifically doctors.

New York’s teaching hospitals are powerful economic engines, generating hundreds of thousands of jobs (they are often the largest employers in their communities) and contributing significantly to local businesses and community development efforts. According to AAMC, spending by New York’s medical schools and teaching hospitals supports more than 600,000 jobs and contributes more than $76 billion to New York’s economy. These centers of excellence help solidify the New York City area, in particular, as a desirable location for businesses.

But like all hospitals, our teaching hospitals face daunting headwinds. Their financial challenges include major workforce shortages that have sharply driven up labor costs, woefully inadequate Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates, rising pharmaceutical and supply costs, and profit-driven national health insurance companies that maximize their profits and stock prices by delaying and denying payments to hospitals at every turn.

Sen. Moynihan cautioned that while it took decades for teaching hospitals to evolve into the world-class institutions they are today, bad public policy and societal indifference could trigger their far-swifter decline. He knew that New York’s teaching hospitals must be constantly nurtured and never taken for granted.

We take his warning to heart, and we encourage our fellow New Yorkers to do the same. It’s up to everyone, but especially our elected officials, to recognize the importance of teaching hospitals to our health and well-being, and to protect and help strengthen them accordingly.

Corwin is president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian. Ozuah is president and CEO of Montefiore Medicine.

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