NYU Hospitals Center is completely back in business after Superstorm Sandy interrupted operations in 2012, dragged down revenue and battered the bottom line of the lower Manhattan-based medical facilities.
The not-for-profit organization, which includes NYU Langone Medical Center and the NYU School of Medicine, reported that its fiscal 2014 net patient revenue rose nearly 23% for the year ended Aug. 31. The improvement, from $1.67 billion to $2.04 billion, was due in part to the restoration of the medical center's emergency department, which reopened in late April after sustaining damage from Sandy in October 2012. The ED was the last of NYU Hospitals' services to be restored; all others had resumed operations by August 2013.
In the interim, the medical center operated an urgent-care center to handle what it referred to as a “material portion of the patient volume formerly treated in the ED.” Complete operating data for 2014 has not yet been released, but for the nine months ended May 31, admissions through the ED and urgent-care center were up 52.4% compared with the year-ago period.
NYU Hospitals' 2014 financials didn't benefit just from improved utilization. The system's disaster-related expenses also dropped 81% to $22.1 million from $115 million between 2013 and 2014. Those expenses were incurred to cover costs associated with repairing, replacing and demolishing properties damaged by Sandy. —Rachel Landen
