The Public Hospitals Project
The Public Hospitals Project is a multi-case study research project, funded by the Stephen G. Vladeck Junior Faculty Fellowship at NYU Wagner School of Public Service.
Public hospitals are a fairly unique organizational form in the current US health care delivery landscape. A few hundred are still in existence with several dozen transitioning to nonprofits or being closed altogether each year. Most are based in major metro areas and serve primarily low-income and uninsured populations, though they also frequently function as very high-quality (and therefore sought after) trauma care centers.
We collect data on select public hospitals through public document reviews, key-informant interviews and on-site observation. Our goal is to have 4 case studies going simultaneously in Spring of 2024. We’re beginning data collection with Bellevue Hospital and actively recruiting additional public hospitals. To date, we’ve reviewed some 15,000 pages of documents and are awaiting final IRB approvals to begin on-site observation and interviews. If you happen to work at a public hospital and have an interest in participating, we would love to hear from you. Similarly, if you live in New York City and have an interest in offering a community members’ perspective, we’d love to hear from you too.
The goal is to answer the questions: what, if anything, is unique about public hospitals compared to nonprofit or for-profit hospitals? And what, if anything, should policymakers do to try and preserve this organizational form? We are planning a series of academic papers on these topics, which should begin to emerge in late Spring of 2024.
I lead this project with Sam Doernberg, MD and a fabulous team of research assistants: Amanda Zink, JD, MBE, Evan Casalino, Sean Pomory, MDiv, Tara Sarmiento and Will Harris. Will and Sean were both standout first-year masters students last year in my Intro to Health Policy and Management class at NYU Wagner last year.
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