1199SEIU Delegates and employers from 19 Brooklyn hospitals and nursing homes met in Manhattan on April 12 for the Health Care Reform Learning Symposium II. It was an opportunity for the attendees to discuss proposed Federal changes in health care and their effects on the delivery of health care services in Brooklyn.

With high rates of preventable admissions and chronic disease, healthcare providers in Brooklyn are faced with unique patient care challenges. Attendees were enthusiastic about expanded health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, but Delegates were concerned about proposed cuts to Medicaid and Medicare. These cuts are of particular concern in Brooklyn, where more than one third of the residents are Medicaid recipients.

“Our concern is taking care of our patients, and for years we’ve been doing that as best we know how,” explained Josephine McKie, a Patient Care Technician from Interfaith Hospital. Like many of the Delegates attending the conference, Josephine and her co-workers are extremely concerned about funding cuts and understaffing.

Some of Brooklyn’s hospitals are in significant financial distress. Symposium panelists and speakers emphasized the need for more efficient administration, better community health education, preventative care and improved cost management. Delegates expressed the need for increased rank-in-file education, to better understand and adapt to the changes taking place in Brooklyn.

Many Delegates who attended the conference are also Brooklyn residents. As Genelle Jones from Brookdale Hospital explained, improving health services in Brooklyn is not just “a union thing, it’s a community thing. It’s for us.”

Throughout the conference, Delegates expressed optimism about the future of health services in Brooklyn. “Who knows?” said Earl Lowes of Cobble Hill Health Center, “Maybe we can take this bad situation and make an opportunity out of it.”