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NYU Langone Addresses Bikur Cholim Controversy on Access to Patient Rooms

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One of New York City’s largest hospitals has accused a Hasidic group that visits sick patients of lying about the hospital’s policy to limit access by volunteers to patient floors and rooms.

Dr. Andrew Brotman, senior vice president and vice dean for clinical affairs at NYU Langone Health, said in a statement that a claim by the Satmar Bikur Cholim that it is being barred from its hospitals is “an outright falsehood.”

 

Brotman said groups like Satmar Bikur Cholim may still bring food to hospital-approved volunteers at its facilities, but that a recent policy limiting direct visits to patients is meant to prevent interactions with medical staff that a hospital statement described as “chaotic, counterproductive and outright harmful.”

 

The statement came in response to a JTA article earlier this week that reported on the new policy at NYU hospitals, reported the web site vosizneias.com. “In the article, the Satmar Bikur Cholim claimed that it was being barred from the hospitals and delivering kosher food because the medical staff resented its role as patient advocates. The Hasidic group has threatened to call for a boycott of NYU hospitals.

 

In this statement, Brotman acknowledged tensions over the group’s advocacy work. Satmar Bikur Cholim “wants to position itself as the ultimate authority on all aspects of healthcare, including choosing what treatments and doctors patients and their families should ask for, and which services doctors should accept or refuse, especially when it comes to end-of-life decisions,” said Brotman. “Conflating this bigger issue with the unsupervised delivery of food to patient floors is dishonest and deceitful, and intended solely as fear mongering to vulnerable populations for suspicious personal gains.”

 

Scott Seskin, an attorney representing the Satmar group, said the hospital’s new statement is damaging. “Rather than engage in a constructive dialogue, NYU has chosen to insult an esteemed organization which has been providing services to the community for more than 50 years,” he said. The statement “shows how little respect they have for the organization, and it grossly underestimates the support it has from the Satmar community.”

 

Mark Meyer Appel, the chairman of CAPS (Community Action Policy Services) – the advocacy group of the Rabbinical Alliance of America – Igud HaRabbonim also took umbrage over the critical statements from NYU-Langone that were made about the Satmar Bikur Cholim.  In a statement to the media, Mr. Appel declared, “It is shocking and troubling how anyone can call into question the great humanitarian work of the Satmar Bikur Cholim and their dedicated volunteers who are working around the clock in saving lives, comforting patients and their families and in helping people.” He added that, “The tradition of care of nearly 60 years is well documented. As a concerned citizen, I am shocked at this blatant denial of reality.”

 

Satmar Bikur Cholim was founded in 1952 by the late Satmar Rebbitzen Feigy Teitelbaum, of blessed memory, in Mrs. Kahan’s kitchen. Satmar was then a small community, most of whom were refugees from the Holocaust, many having lost their families at Auschwitz. What started out in that kitchen has grown to be a major component of the Jewish social service safety net that the entire Jewish community takes for granted.  

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