1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East released the following statement in response to today’s decision by the Board of Trustees of One Brooklyn Health (OBH) to appoint an Interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO):

“1199SEIU is deeply dismayed that One Brooklyn Health (OBH) board leadership continues to ignore caregiver and community voices regarding the direction of the health system. Healthcare transformation in Brooklyn’s most vulnerable communities cannot succeed without seeking consensus from the broad coalition of stakeholders who have helped guide OBH from its inception.

 The OBH board must be representative of the population it serves and focus its attention on finding common ground to address the healthcare disparities that exist in Brooklyn.

 Severe Medicaid underpayments continue to push hospitals to the brink of closure in Brooklyn and elsewhere in New York. OBH was formed precisely out of this reality. The financial stressors facing the health system are due to this underlying structural problem—which must be fixed in the state budget.

 The OBH board owes it to patients, caregivers, and the community to be more collaborative stewards of this critical health system.”