I hate to say it but I don't think this is an NYU-specific problem... I work in an ED in NYC and not too long ago, the vice chair called to give me the heads up that our hospital CEO's nephew was being brought in. I essentially asked what I was supposed to do with that information and the conversation went like this:

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Vice Chair: "I want you to treat him like ...."

Me: *interrupting before they finish, "...like any other patient"

(I thought they were going to make the point that everybody is equal and we treat everybody the best we can)

Vice Chair: "No. I want you to treat them like CEO's nephew!"

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I also trained at a different hospital in NYC and they too would "reserve" inpatient beds for VIPs before they even arrived at the hospital. We were told not to give those beds away to another patient, including patients who had clearly been there longer, waiting for an inpatient bed to open up.