A Brooklyn hospital is facing scrutiny over an array of issues from potential overtime abuse to allegations of improper selling of equipment, the Daily News has learned.
The probe at South Brooklyn Health — formerly known as Coney Island Hospital — started several months ago following a meeting between a trio of city Health and Hospitals Corporation employees, the city Department of Investigation and the Brooklyn U. S. Attorney’s office, sources familiar with the probe said. Both DOI and the Eastern District are investigating
The whistleblowers laid out a series of concerns, though none have yet been substantiated, source said. They include accusations that Health and Hospitals Corporation cops and private security guards are abusing overtime, that at least two HHC police officers live in New Jersey, in violation of state law, and that staffing issues involving a private contractor are leading at times to scanning stations at the hospital being unmanned.
The whistleblowers also said two HHC officials had been caught selling without permission portable X-ray machines that were being replaced by new machines provided under a FEMA grant, sources said.
DOI and the feds had no comment and would not confirm or deny the investigation. Mitchell Katz, HHC president, did not respond to requests for comment.
One area of complaint involves the staffing of metal detectors by a private security company, Arrow Security. While the complaint alleged a station had gone unmanned, company officials said Arrow, which has had guards at South Brooklyn Health since March 2022, in April 2024 assigned two guards to staff a single metal detector around the clock, with a third overnight guard in place a few days a week.
“The hospital is responsible for any other magnetometers,” AJ Caro, CEO of Arrow said. “You’d have to ask them.”
Caro also said it it takes overtime abuse seriously and, in fact, had recently fired a guard who stole $3,000 for overtime hours not worked at the hospital.
“I’m not aware of what they are saying,” he said in reference to the whistlweblowers.
The alleged equipment selling dates back to 2023, when officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of the 11-story Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital on the grounds of South Brooklyn Health. It was built with $923 million from FEMA and among improvements doubled South Brooklyn Health’s emergency department capacity.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital
Health and Hospitals Handout
The Health + Hospitals-run Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital in South Brooklyn. (Health and Hospitals Handout)
The source said two hospital officials later were investigated after the hospital was told they had sold two X-ray machines that were being replaced. Christopher Miller, an HHC spokesman, said the two hospital officials left the hospital “on their own many months apart.”
Miller did not address the whistleblower’s accusation more broadly.
