I spoke to my friend who is a MS2 student at Downstate. Here is what I learn about the problem.
The hospital only serves ppl with no insurance; hospital closing is bound to happen, but if they close it down, where will these ppl go? it's a dilemma. The administration is kinda facing a GM like crisis. The employee compensation is ridiculous, and they over hired for the same position. For example, they just cut the employee vaca days from 60 to 45. The research foundation has a lot of money and the medical college has endowments from alumni, but the hospital is definitely sinking. So the finances is pretty complicated. Rest assure, this should not impact the pre-clinical years, but highly the latter two. If the hospital does close, the clerkships would be a little further away, but there's always Kings County Hospital across the street.
Downstate's fame for good clinical training doesnt come without a price. As sub-i in internal med, you get on avg of a 8 patients, whereas at other schools, 4 may be already too much.
