Update: Loans Give N.Y. Catholic Hospital a Month’s Reprieve

A combination of state loans and assistance from creditors will help New York’s St. Vincent’s Hospital stay afloat for another four weeks while officials seek a long-term solution to the facility’s financial woes, reports The New York Times.

St. Vincent’s, the city’s last Catholic general hospital, is $700-million in debt and seeking a partner to avoid a second bankruptcy in five years. Continuum Health Partners, one of New York’s largest hospital systems, has offered to step in but wants to make St. Vincent’s an outpatient center.

The Greenwich Village hospital got $6-million from the state and $2-million from a creditor this week to make its current payroll. Announcing the aid Wednesday, Gov. David Paterson said he was forming a task force to study the institution’s operations but that state help would not be open-ended.

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