NEW YORK (AP) -- State health officials on Wednesday dismissed complaints that patients in a hospital neonatal unit were mistreated while Beyonce was there giving birth to her and Jay-Z's daughter.
They had received two complaints about Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital, one made anonymously, the other from someone who had learned about the matter through the media, a health department spokesman said. Officials reviewed the complaints and dismissed them Wednesday night, spokesman Jeffrey Gordon said without elaborating.
The hospital, a popular choice for the rich and famous from late philanthropist Brooke Astor to "30 Rock" star Tina Fey, said it was conducting its own probe.
Beyonce gave birth to the couple's baby, Blue Ivy Carter, at the hospital on Saturday.
Media reports said Beyonce and Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, paid $1 million to take over a floor and their security guard blocked parents from the neonatal unit for hours. The hospital denied the reports, saying the couple paid the standard rate for an executive suite without disclosing what that is.
One new mother, Rozz Nash-Coulon, told The Associated Press that her twins, born Dec. 28, were in the neonatal unit and, starting Friday, intense security measures made it a struggle to see them as guards directed hallway traffic.
"Once they checked in there was high security everywhere," she said Monday. "It looked like the president was on our floor. The hospital's security cameras were taped over. Internal windows from the hallways into the ward were blacked out."
The hospital's executive director was heading up its own inquiry into the complaints, hospital spokeswoman Barbara Osborn said. The hospital was interviewing parents who had children in the newborn wing when Jay-Z and Beyonce were there, she said.
"We have spoken to seven out of the 10," she said. "None have reported being stopped from seeing their babies."
She confirmed that security cameras were briefly taped over when the Carter family was being moved, "but only when a security guard was present" on the fourth floor, where the neonatal unit is located. She declined to say why they were taped over.
She said that other parents at the unit did notice "enhanced security." But she said none felt restricted from accessing the unit or any other at the hospital.
Jay-Z confirmed the birth of the couple's daughter in a song released on his social website Life and Times on Monday.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/12/beyonce-baby-birth-hospital_n_1201421.html
Lenox Hill Hospital and its staff were delighted to welcome the Carter family for the birth of their firstborn on Saturday evening, but we are troubled by the misinformation being circulated in some news media reports," Danza said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Monday afternoon. "The suggestion that the couple paid $1.3 million to rent an entire maternity floor is simply not true. The family is housed in an executive suite at the hospital and is being billed the standard rate for those accommodations. Our executive suites are available for any patient, including the food service and amenities provided to the Carter family."
The family does have its own security detail on site. However, the hospital has been and continues to be in control of managing all security at the facility," Danza said, clarifying the report. "We have made every effort to ensure minimal disruption to other families experiencing the births of their own children over the past three days. No security plan that we or the Carter’s security team put in place would have prevented or delayed families from gaining access to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and to date, no families have complained to the hospital about being denied access to the NICU."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/beyonce-baby-blue-ivy-jay-z-279764