Tocsin Magazine received the following email:
First, there is a tacit practice at both the Strong Hospital and Rochester General Hospital's ERs to allow police to peruse the patient census and run names to see if anyone in the ER has an open warrant. Care providers are given contact information to reach the officers once a patient is discharged, so an arrest may be made off of hospital premises. I do not personally work in the ER but I witnessed this practice when I was in residency, and know people who see this happening currently. Current hospital employees that I know who have seen this practice have varying degrees of willingness to provide documentation of this, given concerns about retaliation. If this is something you think worth writing about, this could certainly be verified.
The second theme that we would like to highlight is the lack of meaningful engagement by URMC with issues of health equity in Rochester. I'm sure you know we have one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the country (within historically redlined areas of the city), as well as one of the largest disparities in life expectancy between white people and BIPOC members of our community. The University receives its tax-exempt status in return for demonstration of "community benefit" which it is required to document in its 909 tax filings under Schedule H. In reviewing the last several years of their filings, it is abundantly clear that accounting techniques are used to demonstrate spending on community benefit, rather than any actual direct investment. We would like to call attention to this (basically to publicly shame the UR) and also propose / demand spending on things specifically beneficial to the community (like well paid community advisory boards for clinics, funding salaries of Black and Latinx doulas, full scholarships to URMC for RCSD grads, full educational funding support for BIPOC employees of URMC).
After receiving this email, we spoke with the sender directly to confirm her identity and verify the information in the email. The sender wishes to remain nameless for fear of retaliation.
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