Mount Sinai, one of the nation's premier teaching hospitals, has acquired and developed apartment buildings over the past 30 years, as a service to provide convenient housing to its residents, attending physicians, and other hospital staff. Faced with budgetary constraints, the hospital asked its real estate Vice President Tom Ahn to consider more cost-effective ways of managing the housing assets to assist in a large hospital refinancing. While Mount Sinai felt that housing was essential to support recruitment and retention of top-level staff, the hospital sought to focus management time on its core mission: being a preeminent medical institution.

Knowing of PHSI's reputation for managing employer-assisted housing, Mount Sinai turned to PHSI to manage its apartment buildings on its behalf. With residents moving in and out each summer, Mount Sinai needed PHSI to assist with large-scale apartment turnover. Roughly 600 apartments change hands each July, often necessitating apartment cleaning, repainting, repairs, and back office services to be geared up for the new tenant in less than a week. PHSI has specially customized its services for Mount Sinai to effectively serve this peak demand in July, and to work closely with the Mount Sinai staff who select the tenants for each apartment. By choosing PHSI to provide full property management services, Mount Sinai has enabled its management and staff to effectively maintain focus on important hospital affairs during the busy summer months.

As New York's largest manager of staff housing for medical institutions, PHSI takes special care to ensure that services are customized for each client.

Why did you decide to hire PHSI?
"In 1997 we were having problems with our back office. Our rent receipts weren't going out on time, and we didn't have a clear understanding of our arrears. We wanted Phipps to take it over, figure out what was going wrong, and give us a quick fix to the problem. That's what they did."

What has been your experience with PHSI?
"Now the reports come in on time, and the rent statements go out on time. The [BJ Murray] system is a sophisticated system, and as our organization grows, we get new training [from Phipps] on new things. For example, now we're looking to tie in a new tenant legal system into our other information systems. People on both sides have been very helpful in this effort, and in always trying to make things work better for us."