http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060915/NEWS03/609150344/1019/NEWS03SPRING VALLEY — The village chapter of the NAACP has filed a complaint accusing the Ben Gilman Medical and Dental Clinic of religious discrimination for closing on Saturdays.
The complaint, filed Sept. 6 with the state's Division of Human Rights, alleges that the clinic's practice of remaining closed Saturdays in observance of operators' Jewish Sabbath, unlawfully imposes their religious beliefs on others.
Complainants say the practice is an unlawful violation of people's civil rights, particularly since the clinic's operator, Monsey-based Community Medical and Dental Care Inc., has received millions of dollars in federal funding.
In addition to the Gilman clinic, Community Medical and Dental Care operates Monsey Medical and Dental Center.
Sharon Milner, executive director of Community Medical and Dental Care, declined to comment on the complaint but said the organization had retained attorney Robert Lewis to handle the matter.
Lewis, who has an office in Nyack, also declined to comment.
Willie Trotman, president of the Spring Valley branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the purpose of the complaint was to have the clinic open on Saturdays.
Those who work — more than 80 percent of the clinic's clientele are Hispanic or black, according to a letter the clinic sent to the Human Rights Commission earlier this year — would find it convenient to visit their doctors on a Saturday when they had the day off, Trotman said yesterday.
The Spring Valley NAACP had previously tried to resolve the situation.
In an August 2005 meeting with Trotman and county Human Rights Commissioner S. Ram Nagubandi, Hoffman said he would consider opening the clinic on Saturdays.
But, in a May letter, Hoffman wrote to Nagubandi saying that the rabbinical permission necessary to authorize Saturday openings had not been granted.
That left the NAACP with little choice, Trotman said.
"There was a formal effort on our part before filing the complaint, and then nothing. And so here we are," he said. "We're not looking to divide the community. We want to bring the community together."
Because the complaint is confidential, Nagubandi could not comment on its specifics. However, he confirmed that a complaint had been filed by the NAACP and said his office — acting as an agent for the state's Division of Human Rights — would investigate the matter.
The Gilman clinic will have two weeks from the date it receives the complaint to respond. A conference involving the parties will be convened before a formal investigation begins, Nagubandi said.
"Once the investigation is completed, we write a report and send it to the state for further action," he said.
The investigation could take up to 180 days. If there is a determination of wrongdoing, the clinic could be asked to make corrections or could face unspecified punishment.
In a copy of the complaint provided by the NAACP, Hoffman, Milner and the clinic were said to "invoke their religion" in order to engage in "disparate treatment" of people of different faiths. It also alleges that the respondents failed to accommodate other religious beliefs.
Hoffman and Milner have previously stated their commitment to providing excellent patient care, adding that their clinics have diverse, multilingual staffs.
The Gilman clinic and its sister site in Monsey have been the focus of several prior complaints by community advocates who have criticized the way reception staff have treated non-English-speaking immigrants, the undocumented and the uninsured.
In July, the state Department of Health faulted the Gilman clinic for operational deficiencies following a complaint by a patient who said staffers delayed treating her because she lacked a co-payment and divulged her financial information to a police officer.
Gilman clinic officials declined to comment on the case, but have said they would treat emergency patients even if they could not make a co-payment.
Milner wrote a letter of apology to the patient for having shared the financial information, and said the other deficiencies identified by the state were corrected.
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Hmmm....so are they going to sue other clinics for being closed on SUNDAYS? Didn't think so.
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