NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Presence Helps Local Businesses
There was a time when Robert Rosenburg, 65, owner of Theresa Pharmacy on Broadway, remembers being a reckless toddler in his father’s shop before inheriting the business. The 102-year-old Washington Heights mainstay used to resemble an old soda fountain pharmacy, covered in wood and glass, until it was renovated 25 years ago. All prescriptions were kept in glass bottles tucked away in drawers lining the wall. Wooden ladders allowed pharmacists to retrieve medications kept up high.
Today, Theresa pharmacy looks more like a Walgreens or CVS with a neighborly feel. Products like shampoo and Tylenol line shelves of the aisles. A cash register services customers at the front of the store and the pharmacy counter services patients in the back. Conveniently, the local pharmacy is just two blocks away from the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia Irving Medical Center.
“About 60% of our patients are from the hospital,” Rosenburg said.
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Washington Heights is the area’s largest employer. However, providing jobs is not the only way the hospital stimulates the neighborhood’s economy. Washington Heights has a thriving demand for pharmacies, medical equipment stores and clinics. The area has become a convenient one-stop-shop for patient’s healthcare needs.
Adam E. Block, an associate professor of health policy and management at New York Medical College, said that this is called a secondary economy.
“You have a whole bunch of hospital employees that are coming into the organization every day,” Block said. “But there are also lunch counters that are serving those people. There are also pharmacies, there are also grocery stores, there’s a whole bunch of other organizations that set up shop nearby.”
Hospitals are more likely to create secondary economies because they involve less remote work than many other industries.
During the pandemic, the hospital continually provided business to pharmacies and medical equipment stores when most other businesses were forced to close.
“There were still patients that were receiving surgery in the hospital,” Vanessa Flores, 27, an employee at East Coast Orthotics and Prosthetics, said. “We do work with orthopedic. So, they would just send the patients to us, and we’d provide the items that they need for surgery.”
However, some business owners feel the hospital doesn’t try hard enough to support local businesses.
Mohammed Wise, 33, co-owner of USA Scrubs on Broadway, said that when he was looking for a place to open in Washington Heights, he wanted to be as close to the hospital as possible.
“This is New York. People don’t go from more than one block away if they don’t have to,” Wise said.
Despite being one block from the hospital, Wise said that the hospital does not give him as much business as the Columbia University health system. Columbia University health system purchases scrubs from his store while NewYork-Presbyterian often opts for scrubs from larger corporations, he said.
Rosenburg said that the hospital is the lifeline of the community but also feels a lack of loyalty despite being in the community for over 100 years.
Theresa Pharmacy was one of the only pharmacies open on Labor Day, filling emergency prescriptions from the hospital to discharge patients for the holiday but he does not feel that the hospital makes any effort to refer patients to his business, he said.
Helen Cole, senior researcher at Barcelona Laboratory for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability said that health systems might try to understand the community in which they exist by conducting a needs assessment, but they often don’t implement beneficial programs.
Cole said, “They make a nominal effort to understand and serve the needs of the community that’s around them.”
