Meeth

After months of open warfare with 300 of its doctors, the hospital, known as Meeth, was ordered by a Federal judge on Sept. 30 to halt its $41 million going-out-of-business sale to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Eliot Spitzer Stops $41 Million Sale of Deluxe Hospital 1999

The clinics would bear the Meeth imprimatur, but their affiliations would be with local hospitals or networks.

300 Doctors in Fight Against Pending Sale of Nose-Job Hospital 1999

"It's just the kind of place that doesn't work in the 90's," said Abigale Knapp, a spokesman for Meeth.

300 Doctors in Fight Against Pending Sale of Nose-Job Hospital 1999

Over the past decade, Meeth has seen an exodus of patients and doctors that generated a $3.9 million deficit last year.

300 Doctors in Fight Against Pending Sale of Nose-Job Hospital 1999

The first Meeth opened in a 34th Street brownstone and the hospital expanded over the years, creeping uptown until it landed at its current East 64th Street location in 1906.

300 Doctors in Fight Against Pending Sale of Nose-Job Hospital 1999

To Meeth officials, it's a return to their altruistic roots.

300 Doctors in Fight Against Pending Sale of Nose-Job Hospital 1999

Still, the Meeth officials maintain they are doing the right thing-and that they must destroy the hospital to save its mission.

300 Doctors in Fight Against Pending Sale of Nose-Job Hospital 1999

With the money they will make from the sale, the Meeth board plans to open four or five ear, eye and throat clinics in poor neighborhoods around the city.

300 Doctors in Fight Against Pending Sale of Nose-Job Hospital 1999

Of course, even with that sweetener, there's no guarantee that Meeth will get the necessary state approval of its deal.

300 Doctors in Fight Against Pending Sale of Nose-Job Hospital 1999

Incensed, the doctors presented their own report, slamming the hospital's executive director, George Sarkar, for running Meeth into the ground.

300 Doctors in Fight Against Pending Sale of Nose-Job Hospital 1999