Patients slow to return for care in New York City

Physicians have been feeling financial losses since Sept. 11.

By Cheryl Jackson, amednews staff. Dec. 3, 2001.

For Manhattan plastic surgeon Barry Chuz, MD, this is supposed to be his busy season. But on Sept. 11, he lost 70% of his business. It's still off.

Even before the attacks, hospitals and physicians were noting a decrease in elective surgeries. "And, afterward, it was just pathetic," Dr. Chuz said.

Area hospitals will lose about $340 million, much due to an expected continuation of the downturn in the number of patients over the next few months, the Greater New York Hospital Assn. reported.

The hospitals postponed elective surgeries and admissions and made earlier releases from facilities to free up space for the injured first expected.

The attacks cost New Jersey hospitals at least $36 million, because the hospitals canceled procedures, beefed up staff and served people from whom the facilities couldn't get insurance information, according to the New Jersey Hospital Assn.

While not having numbers yet, the Medical Society of the State of New York said "physicians in New York state have obviously lost millions," due to canceled appointments, an inability to get to or contact their offices and from additional expenses such as cellular telephone service.

Dr. Chuz's New York patient load is lighter. And for now, he's all but lost many of those who came in from Connecticut and New Jersey. The anthrax-related death of a Manhattan hospital employee scared away other patients.

"Even the non-cosmetic stuff is off," he said.

Dr. Chuz spent two weeks without any telephone service, and then had only intermittent service. His long- distance bill went from $265 a month to about $80 a month because service was on the blink.

He said physicians relied on a network of pharmaceutical representatives to keep up with how business was going for their peers in other parts of the city.

"They would tell us who was busy. They would know which specialties were doing what," Dr. Chuz said. "The people up north [farther from the World Trade Center site] got busier, and it worked its way down."

The slowdown does allow physicians to get caught up on paperwork and to check on past-due bills. But they'd rather see more patients.

Ear, nose and throat specialist Andrew T. Cheng, MD, has about half the appointments he had Sept. 10.

His office, 10 blocks north of the World Trade Center, was barricaded. It took a week before pedestrian traffic was allowed.

The solo practitioner usually sees 100 to 120 patients a week. These days, he's seeing 50 to 60 patients a week.